If you want to learn how to master development, servers and services for BlackBerry smartphone. You may want to go back to college.
Research In Motion launched the BlackBerry Academic Program to provide colleges and universities
around the world with a curriculum and course content to offer courses
in administering and supporting the BlackBerry solution and developing
for the BlackBerry platform.
Course content is currently available for mobile application
development for BlackBerry smartphones, administration of BlackBerry
Enterprise Server, and support for BlackBerry smartphones. The
curriculum has been developed in collaboration with academic
professionals and has been in pilot for over a year.
"Career opportunities in information technology are abundant, and
there is increasing demand for people with expertise in managing
BlackBerry products and services and developing BlackBerry
applications," said Robert Crow, Vice President, Industry, Government
and University Relations at Research In Motion. "Millions of people are
using BlackBerry smartphones in more than 170 countries today and the
BlackBerry Academic Program will help colleges and universities prepare
students for careers in technology and help to meet the growing demand
for BlackBerry developers, administrators and technical support
professionals in the global marketplace."
Mobile Application Development Courses - Students can learn about
the tools and techniques for developing applications for BlackBerry
smartphones. Courses cover topics such as BlackBerry smartphone
features and functionality, user interface design, multimedia
application development, mobile web application development and Java®
application development.
Administration Courses - Mobile communication and collaboration
tools continue to play a large role in boosting the productivity of
enterprise workforces, and the need for trained professionals to
administer and support mobile solutions has grown with it. There are
over 200,000 BlackBerry® Enterprise Server installations globally and
trained professionals are needed to maintain and support these
deployments.
Administration courses offered through the BlackBerry Academic
Program can help prepare students to administer, configure,
troubleshoot, and perform essential tasks for managing a BlackBerry
Enterprise Server environment.
For example, the "Maintaining a BlackBerry Enterprise Server in a
Microsoft Exchange Environment" (BCP-410) course includes information
that can help prepare students for the corresponding BlackBerry
Certification exam as well as additional information that can help
students find opportunities in IT departments of large organizations.
Support Courses - Students are trained to work in technical call
centers or IT support environments in support of the BlackBerry
solution. The Support courses also include information that can help
prepare students for the corresponding BlackBerry Certification exam.
The BlackBerry Academic Program provides an outline of the content
for each course, as well as learning materials including student
textbooks (with instructor copy), student lab manuals, instructor
guides and an academic product suite that covers hardware and software.
Course content can be offered over the full length of a semester, or as
individual modules that can be integrated into an existing information
technology curriculum.
Academic Program Rolls Out
Over 500 students have already taken courses based on the BlackBerry
Academic Program as part of a pilot project and several universities in
Canada and the US are now in the process of incorporating courses and
course content from the program into their course offerings.
For more information:
BlackBerry Academic Program - www.blackberry.com/academic