What are some of the new career breakthroughs in IT? What are some of the advancements that are shaping the world of technology? These were familiar questions which Oracle Corporation sought to give answers to during this year’s Oracle Academy University day at Strathmore.

 

Oracle Corporation, one of Strathmore’s @iLab Africa key industry partners, gave students an insightful talk on career opportunities available in Oracle Corp’ and the expanse IT field. Oracle’s reputation surely precedes; they are currently Forbes top 15 world’s most valuable brands. Suffice to mention that the students were rubbing shoulders with the affable.

 

Through Oracle Academy’s CSR initiative platform, trainers are trained on courses designed to effectively extend access to computer science curriculum. The program enables faculty members to become proficient in Oracle Academy curriculum and prepares them to train other instructors to deliver the courses to a growing universe of students. This model supports broader learning communities and provides teachers with a proven methodology for bringing computer science education – through Oracle Academy curriculum – to their classrooms.

 

During this year’s Oracle University day at SU, moderators sought to ask students one question: Are you Job Ready? To further this discussion, the Oracle team led a four hour insightful session; a cum-tour to Oracle’s workings and open opportunities in the related fields.

 

Kicking off the session was Dr. Joseph Orero, Dean Faculty of Information Technology, who applauded Oracle’s contributions to the faculty’s curriculum and the University at large. Dr. Orero noted that Oracle’s partnership has been a major contribution to; the JavaScript and Database curriculum, and examinations and Oracle Certification, which has gone a long way towards giving graduates an upper hand in the job world. The partnership initiates a walk towards making sure that Strathmore is up to date with what is relevant to the market, by being trained by industry players and integrate industry requirements to the students learning modules.

 

Why Oracle? Students develop IT and business skills while using industry-leading software, keeping educators at par with technology and professional development. This is through a comprehensive coverage of topics such as; introduction to Computer Science, Advanced Computer Science, Business Application among others.

 

Why Certify with Oracle? Oracle is among the leading IT Service providers. Their certification affirms one’s expertise in the related field, and hence giving a cutting edge towards ones career and profession.

 

 Beatrice Njau from Oracle Ke. put into perspective Oracle’s initiative on the University day and their CSR umbrella on IT literacy. She spoke of the importance of IT experts to interact with students, an edge which will enable students familiarize themselves with what the market demands. The exercise is categorized into: Employee Readiness- where they teach lectures and module administrators on how best to breakdown IT concepts such as JavaScript and databases- concepts which are considered complex: Youth and workforce Readiness – training students and making it probable for them to acquire internship opportunities, and also collaborating with partners with similar vested interests.

Giving an overview of Oracle’s working and career opportunities was Joseph Kanyua, management representative from Oracle, and a Strathmore Business Leadership Management program alumni, who show cased some of IT’s fertile grounds stating facts and figures which should put any IT practitioner on watch.

 

Following suite with the talks were his colleagues; Francis Kuria- A system consultant and an enterprising architect, who spoke of oracle engineered systems on providing complete solutions to customers; Joseph Mwathi- an Alumni of Strathmore’s Safaricom Academy, who spoke of Oracle’s Integration on other platforms when it comes to application development; Allen Wangu spoke on Fussion Middleware- the mechanics behind moving from one system to another, and the career opportunities involved; George Muhia spoke on the importance of  Analytics; Brian Obinga spoke on  Oracle Applications; and lastly, Erick Kimwatan- a Strathmore DBIT Alumni class of 2014 and a Graduates’ Sales Consultant at Oracle, shared his experience at Strathmore and at Oracle’s Graduates Program.

 

Students were advised to watch out for the 2015 Graduates Program, as the next intake kicks in between June- July.