Upskilling and retraining in ICT with new pilot Accelerate-IT

Retraining and upskilling

Industry in the Brainport region is desperate for technical professionals, including IT professionals. Meanwhile, the work field is in full swing; work environments are changing, but the nature of work itself is also undergoing a transformation. So for people who end up in this, there are also opportunities. For instance, as an SME organisation, to train your staff to become data-driven. Jobseekers or switchers benefit from opportunities to enter a new field in a low-threshold way, and professionals can take targeted training to take their work to a higher or new level. The Accelerate-IT programme offers a unique opportunity to acquire skills, knowledge and experience in IT in just 18 weeks.

Accelerate-IT

Nowadays, Fontys is mainly known for its full-time and part-time education, but with Accelerate-IT, the university offers a shorter programme. It is precisely by accommodating this in a shared learning team that professionals get more out of it, explains initiator Joris van der Straten: "Many courses get stuck in theory, take place in the evenings or are quite short. What we offer is a course, in which you are immersed in a hybrid learning environment one day a week. You learn together with students, researchers and partners by experimenting and researching. So you become skilled with experience and that is something unique that we can offer."

Data Driven Business Lab

The pilot starts in February 2024 and focuses on the specific course Data Driven Business Lab, a pathway to learn to use and apply data in a practical context. According to Execution Manager Lifelong Development Sandra Verhoeven, a good starting case for this educational offer: "Many companies in the region want to make the move to digitalisation and data-driven working. For that, you need to get knowledge in house and this fits in perfectly with that. You can then get an employee trained, but you can also get a flying start as a jobseeker with this know-how in this field. If successful, we will continue to look at other packages." An additional advantage is that the expertise of experienced people also affects the students' learning process, she stresses: "We learn from each other by doing. That means an environment where you can make mistakes and experiment, because that's how you learn with us."

The pilot starts in February 2024 and has room for a small number of participants. You should have HBO working and thinking level, experience in IT is a plus, but not required! For registration or questions, contact JJoris van der Straten or check the course webpage.