JEDDAH — If you are an IT professional in the Western Region who has been left behind by the IT bandwagon, here’s a chance for you to get back into the saddle: A new group called the OFW-IT is looking for members who are willing to dig deeper into the computer world and to help train others later.
The aim of the group is to become “the best source of non-formal training, seminars, workshops and tutorials to a network of professional and technical consultants.
Club president Mike Marquez said the group also hopes to give other IT professionals, who have been lying dormant, a forum to practice what they know, and to learn more about new developments in the field.
Marquez said they were encouraged to organize the club after watching so many “hardcore” IT professionals watching in the sidelines as seminars after seminars, mostly dealing with the basics, have been held in Jeddah.
“Often times we feel out of place,” Marquez told Arab News.
On Friday, officers of the OFW-IT presented a primer Vice Consul Jose Jacob, the acting head of the Philippine Consulate General in Jeddah, and signified their intention told hold trainings soon.
The club will be coming out with advanced subjects that they will teach in modules to select IT professionals. These professionals will be subjected to screening so as to assure that the learning curve will be at the same level.
Marquez said one of these subjects is a one-day seminar on “Deploying Windows 2000 Server and Configuration.” The club hopes to hold this seminar at the consulate after the month of Ramadan.
Other subjects being lined up include system administration, analysis and design, network engineering, Linux Flavors, and system architecture and design.
Galli Lozano, the club’s vice president for software, said that the club has so far six computers they can network for these classes. More units are to be added if the need arises.
“The main objective of the series of seminars is to teach business specific courses, similar to those of Microsoft advanced courses,” explained Charles Tabbu, the club’s vice president for hardware.
A longer term plan of the club is to expand into the entrepreneurial side of the IT profession.
“Usually, those who work in the IT field have camped out. But if they look into the horizon, then they will realize there is more to discover. And one more thing, there are so many wunderkind in Jeddah disguised as OFWs,” Tabbu said.
For those interested in finding out more about the club, they can visit: www.ofw-itprof.20m.com.
The site has plenty of information, including the club’s profile, upcoming events, training programs, contacts, and others.
Marquez can be reached at 052-560218, Lozano at 054-632168, and Tabbu at 053-665017.