University of Canberra IT course places students in the workplace

The University of Canberra has launched a practical degree that will place 25 information technology students into the workplace.

Deep Saini says the program showed the univer­sity’s ‘commitment to providing students with high-quality, ­industry-based learning opportunities’.

The University of Canberra has launched a new-look, practical degree that will place 25 information technology students into the workplace for the duration of their three-year undergraduate degree.

With a mixture of face-to-face learning, online learning and work experience, students in the new bachelor of information and mainframe technology will master using the IBM Z, described by the university as “the world’s most advanced hardware and transaction processing platform”.

Even better for the students, they will enjoy an “attractive” salary and conditions that will ­enable them to graduate free of student fee debt and with three years’ practical experience under their belt.

However, they must go through a selection process, and be interviewed and employed as trainees, by IBM mainframe customers. Applicants must already have an IT diploma from TAFE or have completed the first year of an IT degree at an Australian university.

Preliminary interviews will ­be held before the end of next month and the successful applicants will start classes at the University of Canberra in December.

Because they are working, the students will study for their ­degree online, except for a face-to-face summer school for which their employer will give them time off.

University of Canberra vice-chancellor Deep Saini said the program was academically sound as well as practical.

He said: “This complete work-integrated learn­ing experience is the latest example of the univer­sity’s ongoing commitment to providing students with high-quality, ­industry-based learning opportunities.”

To deliver the program, the university has partnered with education provider Column 72.

Column 72 co-director Paul Matthews said the skills students developed would be in demand for a long time.