Rather than just addressing that internally, or sending people to courses elsewhere, we decided to create our own training department. This department would cater to our own people, our clients, and anyone interested in learning more about the open source technologies that we use and are known for, as we realised there are very few organisations in New Zealand or Australia providing training in open source technologies.
Our training instructors
At Catalyst we specialise in open source technologies and are fortunate to have some very experienced people using those products. We are also lucky enough that some of them are also great at teaching and love to be able to share their knowledge with others.
Our trainers not only train, but they also use the products on a day-to-day basis. They are experts in their fields, enabling them to give real life examples and many helpful tips and tricks that can not easily be learnt from books.
Our training facility
Internally, the training facility has been very beneficial. New staff attend an induction course, a great way to share important information about the company, internal systems and our culture. Once our staff have settled into their roles we encourage them to attend courses that are useful to their work, will increase their knowledge of technologies relevant to current and future roles within the company, or even just out of hacker curiosity. We run a number of internal-only courses that relate to internal systems we use – a great way for people to get up to speed quickly.
We have dedicated training rooms in our Wellington and Auckland offices with planned schedules for the next six months covering the full range of our courses. Christchurch will be fully up and running within the next couple of months. Catalyst Australia also offers training with dedicated training facilities in Melbourne, and course offerings in both Melbourne and Sydney.
Training courses at Catalyst
We also offer client-specific courses. These courses focus on technologies that relate to work we are doing for clients and equip them with skills they will need long term. This ensures maximum benefit from the products and systems implemented by Catalyst. These courses will often be presented by a person who has been working with the client, who knows their systems and understands their business.
Externally we also offer a range of courses that are open to clients, or anyone that is interested in the technologies that we use. Courses range from half a day to two days long and cover topics ranging from Linux servers and desktops to programming languages and tools, Content Management Systems, web accessibility and database administration.
Ensure that you, or your people, have the skills you need to use modern, free and open source technologies: come and see the experts in open source at Catalyst.