Duane La Bom, director of learning at Rackspace and head of its Open Cloud Academy.
The academy recently added network administration to its roster of training classes, said Duane La Bom, Rackspace’s Director of Learning and Development.
The class of 22 students kicked off on Aug. 5th and provides training for people to earn their certification as network administrators, network operators and network engineers.
“We’re putting our students through several weeks of intense training,” La Bom said.
The Open Cloud Academy also offers training in Linux system administration, software development and cyber security.
The academy graduated its first class of 17 students in June. Rackspace hired 11 of them and placed three others at local businesses and is still working to find the last two graduates jobs, La Bom said.
The demand for the classes has been strong, La Bom said.
On Aug. 6th, he met with more than 100 people interested in enrolling in the classes during an evening information session. To qualify for one of the classes, the students must first go through Phase I, a self-paced training course. The goal is for them to earn network administration certification so they can advance to the next stage, La Bom said.
“That qualifies them to move into Phase II,” he said. And in Phase II, the students get to enroll in Linux, Network Administration and other classes.
The Open Cloud Academy, based on the sixth floor of the Weston Centre, is similar to Rackspace University at Rackspace’s headquarters. The academy teaches the general public the same cloud computing and system administration skills and technology needed to work at Rackspace. The students pay around $3,500 per course.
The Open Cloud Academy holds information sessions on the first Tuesday of every month. But registration is required to attend.
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