IBM Expands IT Training OpportunitiesIBM Expands IT Training Opportunities

IBM is expanding the training it offers to IT professionals, including those who work for its business clients as well as individuals who want to learn hot new skills.

The company said Thursday it will offer IT training courses that blend instructor-led classroom learning with online simulation and reference materials in 67 U.S. cities, up from 57. The new locations are Baltimore; Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio; Detroit; Las Vegas; Orange County, Sacramento, and San Diego, Calif.; Parsippany, N.J.; and Tampa, Fla.

IBM chief learning officer Ted Hoff says the courses include training for some of the hottest IT skills, including security, data mining, and open standards. However, integrated into the lesson plans of some courses is also training for "managing vendor relationships," a skill that's increasingly in demand both by companies that have outsourced various operations or processes and those that just want to improve relationships with IT vendors overall.

"Over the last two years, vendor management has definitely become and emerging skill," he says.

While IT training budgets for many companies dried up over the last few years as they struggled with the weak economy, demand for employee training is beginning to pick up, Hoff says, noting that IBM itself will spend $800 million this year on employee training.

There's also been an uptick in demand from individual IT professionals looking to freshen their skills as part of their own career development and management, Hoff says.

Among the classes offered by IBM is a five-day classroom-based course for Linux basics and installation that's priced at $2,000. A "lite," self-paced version of that class, offered virtually, is $925.