Threshold Years
George Penney, of the National Computing Centre, was instrumental in designing and implementing the pioneering training scheme that recruited unemployed, and often unqualified, persons to be trained in computer skills. Based on a rigorous selection process involving psychometric tests and an interest inventory, the selected trainees attended a one year course consisting of academic teaching blocks, at the College of Technology, and work experience placements. Such was the demand that in the initial years in Northern Ireland one thousand applicants would compete for the thirty available places. Over the twenty odd years that the scheme ran we could find ourselves approaching graduates of the scheme, who had attained senior positions in the industry, to provide work experience for the latest tranche.
The scheme spawned two spin-offs in N Ireland - the Microelectronics Technician Training Scheme, and a , short-lived, IT Sales course. |
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