Training on convergence-driven e-commerce technologies

The phenomenon of e-commerce has today engulfed us all. The rapid growth of the e-commerce segment has provided unique opportunities for organisations as well as nations to participate in a global village providing services and products to a worldwide audience.

This growing demand is bringing with it a host of employment opportunities for individuals with the right skill base and motivation. NIIT, along with its technology partners Microsoft and Nokia, announces the most comprehensive and relevant e-commerce program available in the South African market today. Commenting on this program, Wayne Dalton, Service Readiness Manager, in charge of Microsoft CTEC program in South Africa said, "The South African IT education and training market needs training programs that provide a value proposition to the new entrant job seeker. The NIIT E-Commerce program appears to be a refreshingly new paradigm shift from the existing learning methodologies available today."

Speaking about this program, Gavin Pemkin, spokesman of RF Group, distributors of Nokia in Southern Africa said, "The NIIT e-commerce program provides the ideal base for individuals to develop the necessary skills to create WAP-based mobile applications."

Elaborating on the e-commerce programs, Saket Sarda, Regional Head of NIIT for Southern Africa said, "The program is being introduced in South Africa with NIIT`s revolutionary and acclaimed methodology known as the Model Centred Learning Architecture (MCLA). This methodology enables a `problem-solving` and `outcomes-based` approach to imparting IT skills necessary for employment in the IT industry. This program is well suited for individuals who are looking to exploit opportunities within growing IT services industry - a market that locally is expected to grow at a CAGR of 25 % through 1999 to 2005."

As a part of this launch, NIIT is offering a free workshop in "De-Mystifying e-commerce". The objective of the course is to drive out some of the myths and fears people have about e-commerce/m-commerce. The course will enable them to understand and appreciate the various aspects of e-commerce, its potential and issues like security, payments over the Net, etc. In the e-commerce program, NIIT will be imparting training on Web-based applications such as JavaScript, Extensible Markup Language (XML), Wireless Markup Language (WML) and WMLScript programming that would provide intelligence to the mobile devices. Using WML and WMLScript the learner can create Web pages, which can be displayed on the wireless device.

The NIIT E-Commerce program has important components, which make it very suitable for the South African market. The components consist of a modular approach to the course, a deferred payment plan, merit based bursaries and provision for educational loans.

NIIT is today actively involved in moving South Africa towards being a key player in the Information Superhighway. The chairman of NIIT, Rajendra Pawar, is today a member of the Presidential Task Force On Information Society And Development. The launch of this e-commerce program from NIIT is a step towards empowering South Africans to arm themselves and move the country towards fulfilling this vision.

These programs would be available through NIIT`s 15 training centres across Southern Africa. These centres also offer under one roof, programs on Linux and advanced technologies like Oracle 8i, Forms, TCP/IP, JDBC, HTML, Visual Basic, Visual C++ and COM/DCOM.