- Micro Focus joins e-skills UK employer forum to support new University degree
- University of England (UCE) and Oxford Brookes University join Micro Focus ACTION programme
Micro Focus, the provider of enterprise application management and modernisation solutions, today announces that it has joined e-skills UK's Employer Strategy Forum (ESF) for the Information Technology Management in Business (ITMB) degree course. to help address growing demand for business-focused IT professionals. Also today, Micro Focus announces that Oxford Brookes University and the University of Central England (UCE) and have signed up to the Micro Focus Academic ConnecTIONs (ACTION) program. This signifies the first step to help deliver e-skills UK's endorsed Information Technology Management for Business (ITMB) degree.
As the employer-led sector skills council for IT and Telecoms, e-skills UK aims to ensure the UK has the technology-related skills it needs to succeed in the increasingly competitive global economy. Micro Focus will be working as part of the ESF to ensure that the ITMB degree prepares future IT professionals with the blend of business, communications, project management and technical skills employers need. The partnership will complement Micro Focus' own ACTION program, which provides universities around the globe with free access to the latest technology and teaching tools for enterprise application development.
Bob Clift, e-skills UK said: We are delighted to welcome Micro Focus onto the ESF. Companies such as Micro Focus help to ensure the ITMB degrees continue to respond to evolving employer needs and provide students with real world business insight and experience. We look forward to working with Micro Focus and its ACTION programme.
Bob Champion, ITMB Course Director, Oxford Brookes University said: It is evident that there is an on-going need for COBOL-literate programmers as we enter the 21st Century. We feel the ACTION program perfectly complements other aspects of our ITMB degree and will contribute significantly to the skill-set of our students.
Working with the ESF, Micro Focus will underline the importance of core IT systems and COBOL skills, which drive the operational effectiveness of organisations around the world. Recent research by Micro Focus of 650 customers and prospects revealed that more than three-quarters of CIOs expect the recruitment of COBOL programmers to remain a key focus of their IT departments over the next five years. Among the respondents, 94 percent indicated they run COBOL in production, whilst 73 percent indicated trained COBOL professionals can be hard to find. This provides striking evidence that maintaining core IT systems skills will continue to be an essential priority for CIOs over the next five years.
Stuart McGill, Chief Technology Officer, Micro Focus, said: Our partnership with e-skills UK's ESF is an important development to help academia and industry work more closely together to address growing demand for business-focused, customer-oriented IT professionals. COBOL remains a crucial part of the IT landscape and runs around 75% of the world's business transactions every day. I am delighted to announce the newest members of our ACTION programme - Oxford Brookes University and UCE are leading academic institutions with very strong technology credentials. Micro Focus will continue to commit significant time and energy to ensure colleges have the resources they need to deliver appropriately skilled graduates to meet the needs of commercial organisations.
Micro Focus takes action against IT Skills Crisis
.
