Aerospace Workers Start Year On New Technology Career Paths
Brevard Workforce sponsors inaugural Drupal starter program
Brevard County, FLORIDA – Fifteen members of Brevard’s aerospace workforce who faced layoffs in 2011 are starting 2012 in internships that promise career possibilities in Drupal, one of the fastest growing open source Content Management Systems in the world.
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The group was among those who completed the inaugural session of the Drupal Career Starter Program (DCSP), which was funded by Brevard Workforce through funds for displaced Aerospace Workers.
Drupal, an open-source Content Management System that powers millions of websites and applications worldwide, has encountered such high demand that there is a shortage of qualified professionals worldwide to meet it.
DCSP, developed and conducted by Anello Consulting, includes a rigorous application process, a 10-week, 70-hour course including classroom instruction and practical training, and a follow-on internship.
The DCSP course is a first-of-its-kind, multi-week program that provides participants with everything they need to change careers into the opportunity-rich field of Drupal. Hundreds of full-time Information and Communications Technology (ICT), contracting, and telecommuting positions are currently posted on Drupal.org/jobs, Careerbuilder.com, Dice.com, and other online jobs sites.
“Well-paying jobs are available now, and are growing fast in areas of ICT that may not be familiar to the general population, nor have formal certifications,” said Lisa Rice, president of Brevard Workforce. “The data on the growth of Drupal, and the tremendous opportunity for those people who learn the software and gain experience convinced us we have to step outside the box a bit so we can offer our workforce fast turnaround programs that provide well-paying options quickly.”
The DCSP curriculum and format was developed and conducted by Michael Anello of Anello Consulting, an active member of the worldwide Drupal Community, and a lead organizer of Florida’s fast-growing Drupal User Group. He also coordinated the internship portion of the program, reaching out to a very willing professional community that had more internship positions available than there were participants in the program. About 89 percent of those who completed the DCSP were technically qualified to become interns.
The 15 internships keep all the participants living in Brevard, with most working remotely for host organizations including governments and private companies in the Orlando area, North Florida, South Florida, Washington DC, Atlanta and North Carolina.
Fourteen of the internships are funded through Brevard Workforce’s Adult Work Experience program.
“There is a lot of value in intensive training followed by internships, both for aspiring Drupal professionals and growing firms like ours that are constantly looking for more talent.” said Dave Terry, partner of Altanta-based Mediacurrent. “We are excited to be a part of this innovation in workforce efforts, and hope that more agencies support Drupal training in the future.”
Organizations that are hosting interns are using the Drupal CMS, which is estimated to be powering almost 2 percent of the world’s web sites, including high profile sites such as www.whitehouse.gov. Drupal also powers highly-interactive and content-rich sites such as www.examiner.com, www.lifetimetv.com, and many Sony music artist sites.
The modular format of the platform, combined with its ease of use and active developer community, continues to inspire wide-scale adoption across a variety of markets. Development of Drupal talent is a major focus of the international Drupal organization, which is accessible online at www.Drupal.org.