Micro Focus, a provider of enterprise application modernization, testing and management solutions, announced the signing of the 75th academic institution in the U.S. to its Academic ConnecTION (ACTION) program. Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., became the latest American university to join the ACTION program, which is designed to ensure that future generations of IT workers are equipped with the vital COBOL-programming and core IT skills required by major corporations, both in the U.S. and across the globe.
"The goal of the Micro Focus ACTION Program is to ensure that the next generation of IT professionals have the skills needed to deliver the value of existing IT assets into tomorrow's applications," Arunn Ramadoss, communities program lead at Micro Focus, tells 5 Minute Briefing. Organizations need to recruit graduates with the skills to operate and evolve these core systems, the vast majority of which run on COBOL. The ACTION program is designed to ensure this pool of talent is available to the largest organizations in the U.S. and around the globe. "The IT industry needs people who can work with existing code and languages and understand how to take it forward to meet the evolving business and IT needs of their organizations," Ramadoss says.
The program, which now has more than 100 global university participants across 16 countries in five continents, provides member universities with free access to the latest technology and teaching tools for enterprise application development. Micro Focus estimates that around 9,000 students are now graduating every year with these vital skills, benefiting from the ACTION program. Additionally, Micro Focus has revealed that its core product for students and professionals wishing to enhance their core IT skills, Net Express for .NET, has now been downloaded over 35,000 times.
"The ACTION Program offers university students the opportunity to learn core it technologies like COBOL, but more recent advances like .NET and interoperability with core systems as well," says Ramadoss. "The next generation of IT will need to be flexible and able to work across languages and platforms to deliver value."
Micro Focus now plans to continue offering these core teaching tools and technologies, but also expand the ACTION program to include the breadth of the solutions supported by Micro Focus. Students will be able to learn the entire enterprise IT lifecycle process including assessment, analysis, testing, management and modernization. These extensions are expected to be in place by the end of the year.
For additional information, visit the Micro Focus website.