Interest in Windows NT4 has dropped off," according to Ross Bolton, sales director for SureSkills.
"People are moving towards Windows 2003 Server. Microsoft Back Office is busy and network administration is popular, but we have seen a drop in web development style training."
SureSkills has also noticed a decrease in interest in Java courses and surprisingly it hasn't noticed any revived interest in IT security training.
In fact, SureSkills recently suspended training for Checkpoint Firewall due to lack of interest. The company has noted more interest in ".net training, Microsoft Office Specialist and Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL)".
However, according to Bolton, Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) courses have not had the same interest this year as previously,
even though MCSE certification opens the door to some of the industry's biggest salaries.
The biggest problem with computer training seems to be a kind of inflation. The fast pace of technology means that an IT skill learned one year might be obsolete the next.
"Times are changing," said Eileen McGinn, managing director of Ashfield Computer Training. "Three years ago, Microsoft Certified Professionals were God-like figures. But nowadays employers are looking for a broader range of skills and multiple certifications on different platforms."
So the message seems to be that it is better to be a `jack of all trades' including Cisco, Citrix, Unix, and Linux than only be a master of Microsoft.
"An individual needs more than one type of certificate," said McGinn.
"Training companies also need to offer different types of training, they must adapt," said Certification is not a once-in-a-lifetime event for IT professionals," said , Ross Bolton of SureSkills.
"It's not like a degree you do once and it lasts a lifetime. With IT, you have to keep doing exams year in, year out. You have to keep refreshing these skills."
This is why the industry is noticing a decrease in the demand for Windows NT 4 certification and an increase in Windows 2000 certification.
"The certification journey is lifelong," said Bolton. "It is a regular feature in professional life. Certification is only the ability to deal with a specific piece of technology. When this is replaced by a more recent version, you have to learn it again."
Old favourites such as network administration and development remain very strong. Network administration courses have even been joined by companion courses in network security. As you would expect, network security is a concern for most IT professionals.
Curiously, there is a new network security certification offered by Microsoft, whose operating systems are most vulnerable to attack from hackers attempting to exploit its vulnerabilities.
"Our second biggest training subject is network security," McGinn said.
A popular new security qualification is the Cisco Pix Network Security certificate.
"Although there has been a perceived downturn in training in the past 12 months, security training is increasing," she said.
Ashfield has reported no let-up in demand for Java programming courses, which have registered the same amount of interest as Sap training.
SureSkills has also seen a downturn in training. However, the efforts of industry and government to e-enable their businesses has improved business for IT trainers specialising in those subjects.
SURESKILLS differs from other training schools because most of its business originates from the corporate sector as companies send their staff for training. "Very few people will fund this type of training themselves," said Bolton.
One popular course seems to be the Certified Internet Webmaster (CIW ). Ashfield conducts two fulltime courses for students of CIW which is the biggest certification body for worldwide web studies, comprising e-business and web development.
As ever the European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL) is popular, but not as much as before.
"Last year, ECDL training was flying," said McGinn. "We did not have enough rooms for it. This year, we expect a big interest in Windows Server 2003 training and Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) training."
The ECDL and Microsoft Office specialist courses also continue to be hugely popular for students of Eden Computer Training.
ECDL is now taken as the norm for employment as bank officials, office administrators, secretaries, personal assistants and office specialists who are grounded in Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Access.
Eden Computer Training recently received the ECDL Best Practice Award at the ICS Skills IT Training conference in Dublin.
The school has 12 Microsoft Master Instructors. Eden also reported that the Joint Examining Board (JEB) teacher's diploma in information and communication technology is currently one of the most popular courses.
"This accreditation from the JEB in Britain gives students a teaching diploma which enables them to teach IT in the VECs, Fás, commercial organisations and private training centres," said Eden's Sheila Prendergast.
However, Eden reports that one of the most noticeable IT training subjects that has eased off during the past year is training on e-commerce/ebusiness and web design.
According to Prendergast, candidates who have successfully completed the CompTia A + and Network Plus exams are successful because employers know they will require little in house training.
"These courses remain extremely popular," she said. "Many students cover the course material at home and come to the training centre to be examined."
Exam fees are expensive however, with the fee for the A+ qualification being €160 per exam and there are two to complete.
On the technical end, Ashfield reports that there is continuing demand for personal computer repair courses. Successful candidates are awarded the Comptia A + qualification in PC repair.
"Lots of companies train up staff to do repairs," McGinn said. "Most PC problems are minor and don't necessitate calling out an engineer as part of a maintenance contract. Having someone able to fix a machine means no delay waiting for engineers."
McGinn also said that desktop publishing is still popular with students. Courses in QuarkXPress, Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop remain popular.
"We have started a new evening course in desktop publishing," she said.
Prendergast said database development training was popular as more companies realised the benefits of a good database to their organisation.
"Sap is in demand," Prendergast said. "But not many do it. Sap and Oracle programmers are highly specialised and would be more in demand than, say, Java programmers. Java is falling off in popularity."
Another hot topic in the training world is computer aided design, or AutoCad.
"We have seen users taking on other roles," said McGinn.
"We had one managing director of an engineering company who wanted to learn AutoCad. He had been employing three draughtsmen who were drawing by hand and wanted to improve efficiency."
SureSkills has reported a strong interest in Oracle, Sap and ITIL. It is also starting a new course dealing in the Prince II methodology, which sets standards for internal service management. Database and Cisco technology is also moving strongly.
"There is significant interest in Oracle 9i," said Bolton. "It is a new certification that has been well received by the market place. There is always interest in Microsoft technology.
"We expect an elevated level of interest in Windows 2003 networking and server products, XML and dotnet infrastructure and Java," she said. "We are also getting a lot of requests for software design skills and project management."
This summer was a busy period for trainers. Schools that normally experienced a slowdown in the summer months were able to run classes throughout the season, even in the evenings. Normally class sizes vary from eight to about 12 people.
"I believe that by 2004 there will be a worldwide shortage of IT professionals," said McGinn. "But we have seen an improvement in IT training in the past six months, it has become more customised."
Eden advertised in the national press this summer for the first time and was surprised to discover a big demand for summer training. It is running 20-week courses, one day a week. "They come from all over Ireland. They come up on the train to one of our two training centres and go back down that evening," said Prendergast.
Some schools offer flexibility as part of their night course curriculum. For example, Microsoft Systems Administrator is a popular course consisting of four modules. By completing three extra modules a student can obtain a more comprehensive certificate as a MCSE.
The government is a big believer in computer training. "We have just had our best year ever," said Prendergast. "This is because of government business and Fás training. However, next year might be different because there have been big cutbacks in Fás training."
So where do the graduates go? Are we training IT professionals for the benefit of other countries? According to Prendergast, there are probably better opportunities abroad for Irish IT students.
"Traditionally Irish students have always been welcomed with open arms in the US, Australia and Canada," she said. "However, as visa restrictions still exist,this can often be offputting and only those who really want to travel and work overseas take up the challenge of permanent emigration."
SURESKILLS has reported that 87 per cent of its graduates were employed in Ireland. Ashfield also does not believe there are better opportunities for students abroad than in Ireland.
In the services workplace, there is massive demand for IT training and certification. It is not enough to have a `knack' for IT anymore. More and more companies now expect candidates to hold officially recognised training qualifications, such as the ECDL or MOS in applications and CompTia A+ for technical personnel.
Unlike several years ago, the expectation is that candidates have expertise in more than one area.
Moreover, the level of computer skills has improved. Many students start learning computer skills while still in school. This means that most of them will be able to enter the workforce and at least function when faced with computers.
"These days, we see a lot of people applying for courses to gain further skills on top of what they already have," said Helen Long, a Microsoft Certified professional trainer with Client Base Computer Training.
"There is a lot of activity around business applications, but most of this is all coming back to Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint."
"They will go for ECDL and Microsoft Office Specialist for the user community. This is an excellent qualification for users."
Ross Bolton of SureSkills said: "The contracting IT job market has taken a hammering. People now want stability. Those days of earning huge money for working weeks are gone. Students want permanent and pensionable jobs."
Three years ago in the glory days of IT, high calibre professionals were so hard to employ that companies offered additional training as part of the job incentive. This was for the benefit of the candidate, but this training was probably not as valuable for the company as it was for the employee.
Nowadays, employers are a lot more wary of the training they provide to employees. "They want to see the business benefits of training employees," said Bolton. "Businesses want to see a definite return for the training they pay for."
SureSkills is set to announce a major deal with a large government department in the North, which is predicted to be the largest IT training deal ever made in Ireland.
"We are seen to be the biggest training house in Ireland," said Ross Bolton, sales director for SureSkills. "We are also known in the market for training in Citrix, Lotus, Novell and Microsoft."