IT veteran Marinus van Sandwyk has bought programming training company LUSO Computer Institute from founders Rui de Oliveira and Jeanne Jollivet for an unspecified amount.
LUSO is one of the most respected and durable training institutions in SA, having produced graduates for the IT industry for more than two decades.
Van Sandwyk developed a reputation as a leading programmer and innovator in Silverlake Technology Solutions, the company he created focused on IBM System 38 and AS/400 technology. He sold components of this technology to IBM, and, most recently, the company to JSE Securities Exchange-listed Idion.
"Over the years I have appointed a number of LUSO programmers and I have been impressed with the quality of developers they produced," says Van Sandwyk. "Buying LUSO was a logical outflow of the value system I share with the previous owners. In addition, this offers me an opportunity to reinvest in the industry, and to develop world-class skills. These skills are much needed for developing technology such as that which we created at Silverlake. Buying LUSO allows me to help develop a new generation of programmers and identify tomorrow`s leaders as a basis for developing new technologies."
Van Sandwyk`s achievements in his years at Silverlake include the development of world-first partitioning and clustering technology, among them technologies which IBM itself said could not be done.
Van Sandwyk had retired from Idion in 2001 due to health reasons, which he has since put behind him. The acquisition of LUSO has allowed him to get back into the IT industry and play a role in its continued development, and to bring his philosophy of programming excellence to developing skills.
"The curriculum, developed by the previous owners, is unique in its practicality. By the time programmers leave our course they will have developed about 60 programs each. They write tests and exams every week and on average TeckChek, an independent technology training test facility, scores graduating students as being on par with programmers with three to four years` industry experience. That is consistent with my experience in employing LUSO graduates as they were productive from day one," says Van Sandwyk.
LUSO focuses on quality, not quantity, and a typical year will see just 180 students pass through its doors. Those students must first pass an evaluation test before completing a five-day introductory course and only the top 30 at a time are allowed to continue. Typically, the next step of the program is to complete COBOL training. COBOL is used because of its structured approach to programming and the basic thought patterns that it develops which are applicable to all types of programming. It remains the best introductory programming language.
"We are currently running regular Cobol, Java and C++ and courses," says Van Sandwyk. For every C++ or JAVA programmer that qualifies, five COBOL programmers graduate.
In terms of applying its own high standards and ensuring that the community and industry benefit, some 80% of LUSO students during the past three years were from previously disadvantaged communities. For those students who pass both the evaluation test and introductory course and who prove they cannot afford tuition, LUSO provides a bursary loan scheme.
The company is ISETT SETA-approved. The SETA forms part of the structure established by the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA); LUSO is also a member of the ITA and ITUC.
The company is in the process of moving from Braamfontein to a new campus in Craighall Park, Randburg.
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