Cosmo Sheldrake - Come Along

Gavino Loche: Another Brick in the Wall

Andrea Valeri: Sultans of swing

O Certiport, Where Art Thou?

Three years ago, I approached Pearson In Practice to discuss the opening of a centre closer to home, in Worcester. At the time the company was at its peak serving over 2000 apprentices per programme semester (every 20-24 weeks). Students in their first year would be able to look forward to the opportunity of taking their first exam, a 'cherry on the cake' as it were - their first Microsoft Technology Associate exam. This marked their career in the IT industry and proved that they had an expert knowledge and also up-to-date practical experience with the latest software, techniques and skills.

The offering was a significant breakthrough which sorted out the experts from the hangers-on. It was the crowning achievement of the apprenticeship training programme met only by the CompTIA A+ and MOC Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist in Windows 7 (MCTS) exam.

Certiport is the foundation-level series of IT exams aimed at the IT Professional and the End-User. The series of exams are suitable and relevant to Post-16 students in a school or college, Computing Degree graduates in wanting experiential and highly technical training and also those in their first year within the IT profession wishing to prove to their manager, also to themselves that they are 'relevant, recent and productive'.

Certiport in the UK however is not publicly available other than from a very few vendor training companies. The intention was always to fund Certiport offerings in conjunction with other government-funded programmes of study such as an Apprenticeship or NVQ. It would be up to the school or college to determine Certiport as 'added value' and to buy in to the scheme.

Sadly, this has in 2014 led to a situation where there are very few B2C providers.

It is my intention with MBIT Training Ltd to open a training centre to offer official Certiport training courses and also to proctor Certiport exams to benefit the IT skills of the public.

The Certiport offering is also available as a mobile training and testing solution where the registered centre can also engage directly with B2B clients at their own sites. MBIT Training Ltd is also pleased to be able to offer this service.

However, it is new, underused and a little-known offering. It is vital therefore that the Certiport brand becomes established as the 'first port of call' for IT training.

 

God in the Digital Age

Really?
 
Why.
 
Why would an IT guy be talking about God. Odd, given that I walk in a very 'secular' world.
 
I remember that when I worked for Pearson in Practice we even had a policy safeguarding the employees from saying anything which could be 'volatile', 'contentious' and we were even advised to monitor when we sent emails and Facebook posts. I realised that although the intentions were good, the problem and solution were much greater.
 
So who am I to preach to you? I'm not, and won't. Don't worry.
 

I moved to "The Faithfull City", Worcester, from 'the other Faithfull City' - Coventry. I grew up with a Catholic family background, went to a 'High School' with 'High Church' values and it has taken me ten years to undo the 'damage' of 'religiosity'. I now attend and am very pleased to be part of St Pauls' church. Around 100 years ago the church was set up (I believe) by Rev Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy ('Woodbine Willie') who is famous for his direct support of soldiers in the WW1 trenches. His church is now an 'Assemblies of God' Pentecostal church. It is lovely. The church is passionate, from the heart and deeply caring. It is a charismatic and supportive church. If you are Doctor, Manager or Lawyer wanting to 'show your face' then this is not for you. If you like a good sing-song, pop concert and want to just enjoy how good life actually is then this is definitely the place for you!

St Pauls' is now over 150 delegates full in the morning and a further 100 in the evening. It can be found in Worcester City Centre between a major car park and a massive Asda. It has been the father of many 'plant' churches over the past 30 years and continues to inspire.

I'll be honest - I used to hate all of the pop music. I believed that it had no place in church. I would turn up in a suit, not dance and sneer on others. I learned to love other people, accept their faults and finally to even to make friends. I remember one song to the tune of Pet Shop Boys' "Go West" and laughed my head off! Then, I eventually realised that I was in the wrong here.




I am a member of a 'life group'. The principle is simple - each person is part of a group of approx. 10 people. Each group reports back to the church body and any support and pastoral care is done through the group. Each person helps each other.

We love the city. We also support other churches, religions and groups across the city as we realise that we are only part of a much bigger equation. All of this however is an anathema to a Secular IT sector, is it not? Well, if you've been through tough times you might consider what its all for. I am pleased that I can just take some time out from it all and think 'what would Jesus do right now?', even to just ask for help, both from a higher power and also from my peers in the Life Group in a supportive way.

The church is now full of people all avid Facebookers, telling the world through Foursquare all of the events that have been taking place at the St Pauls church and is full of over 100 tweeters, but it doesn't stop there - the church takes a regular stream of online donations, published weekly podcasts of the key messages and discussions held and has a fervent online following. If it wasn't for the Digital Age, we'd have to shout a little louder, but the interest in what the church has - a friendship,  a supportive network, pure kindness and love for our fellow person, would still be there.

We live to care for our fellow people. I'm pleased to get this message out there.

Why I am proud to support World Community Grid

I am extremely passionate about the use of IT for philanthropic means. I am a member of the World Community Grid and pleased to support its programmes of research which are helping to power cutting-edge research in health, poverty and sustainability. Sadly I lost my mother to cancer ten years ago and believe that we have made ground-breaking leaps forward partly due to the research successes from the Grid community. This is an excellent example of the use of IT for good.

This poses me often with something of a problem. I have on many occasions over the past 14 years of working with the IT industry have had on several occasions the opportunity to suggest that other companies I have been involved with decide to engage with WCG for themselves. There is however a valid reason NOT to engage with grid computing if you are a company. There are two main objections which I have encountered and would like to discuss both here:

1. The security of the network cannot be put at risk by exposing it to outside influences - this is in itself a valid argument, however most networks have a 'demilitarised zone' (DMZ) - an area used for testing, also for hosting a Website Server, or 'Honeypot'/'Honeynet' for engaging with the public. The DMZ itself is completely protected from the more internal network. There is not need for the company to engage with all PCs within the company, rather perhaps just one public-facing server.
2. The increased power usages to the network negate the involvement in the project - again, a valid argument. WCG will cause the processor to work 'flat-out' for up to 8 hours on a work task. However, in the realm of teaching companies the PC is often unused, or used for one small task which is far within the parameters of the system which if anything is designed with hardware far exceeding the requirements for their task (e.g. Microsoft Word) and can then allow the remainder to be used for philanthropic causes. If the company financially allocate an involvement in philanthropic or charitable causes then the financial cost is very small indeed. Their involvement with the Grid can of course be as large or small as they deem fit. For myself, at a bare minimum my smartphone can run WCG tasks. I also run an Azure 'cloud' server with Microsoft Windows Server 2008 installed which is acting as a dedicated processing server for WCG tasks.
3. The PCs may be needed by staff for productive tasks - This is true, however the 'computing server' can be 'Hypervised', also can run alongside the tasks being performed by the end user with negligible effect.
4. We don't know who we are letting into our network - this is again a valid argument countered with a little design. If we simply place the processing server into the public area of the network there is no security problem at all. Moreover, the reputation of the WCG is very good in that it is endorsed by and run by a major US University and IBM amongst other contributors.

Matthew Bennett - About me

My name is Matthew Bennett.

I am the proud owner of MBIT Training Ltd - a leading training company operating across the UK.

At the time of writing this I have been working in the academic / education sector as an IT Teacher / Lecturer / Instructor / Trainer (call it what you will and yes, they are all very different!) for 14 years.

I hold Qualified Teacher Status (QTS, also QTS Induction), also as an Institute for Learning member with Qualified Teaching & Learning Status.

I have been a Community Governor for a local Worcester major Secondary school for six years, advising on ICT, Curriculum and Quality Development matters.

I have advised FE colleges on Quality Development matters, also worked as an Advanced Practitioner for Gloucester College with special focus on their use of SharePoint for internal staff documentation. I advise on taxonomy, SharePoint Development and end-user (staff) training.

I am a Microsoft Certified Trainer and Microsoft Partner and have been for four years now. I hold Small Business specialism and also can advise you on sales and pre-sales matters. If you need to upgrade your IT systems you have come to the right man!

I am extremely passionate about developing IT skills - IT is the lifeblood of business and it is absolutely essential that it is used for good, and correctly.

My specialism is actually Network Security. I am pleased to be able to offer official CompTIA courses directly through MBIT Training but also work with other larger Microsoft Official Courseware provider (licenced to run MOC mid-tier courses).

I am also keen to offer end-user training - Microsoft Office, Software Development and Network / Security courses. This can be delivered through the Certiport brand.

I am also extremely passionate about deployment. Why? I once, about ten years ago helped out for a school in Coventry where the school had purchased 50 Dell PCs (the same model). Picture it, if you will - the school had just run the summer exams. The school hall was still full of exam tables. I had been asked to help the Network Manager - we set up all of the PCs, one on each table. The deployment server (a RIS server) was set up on the stage. We switched on all of the PCs - they were waiting at PXE boot phase and we pressed the 'GO!' button on the server. After 3 minutes all of the PCs rebooted and loaded XP at the same time. That is power.

Since then, I have always been excited to be involved in IT deployments. I now am happy to support System Center - Operations Manager, System Center Configuration Manager, Windows Deployment Services and Intune.