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Regional Colleges and Technology Companies Partner to Train RFID Workforce
Thursday 23. July 2009 - St. Clair County Community College and Mott Community College have announced that they have developed Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology labs and curriculum with Dynamic Computer Corporation and Stratum Global.
The RFID certificate program was created as a part of a three-year, $2 million Community-Based Job Training Grant from the U.S. Department of Labor. The RFID program will be offered starting fall 2009 at St. Clair County Community College and during winter 2010 at Mott Community College.
“Both labs and curricula will have significant impact within the colleges, the community and the business world,” said Stratum Global COO Bill Hood. “Graduates can pursue RFID as a career, and those returning for continuing education will increase their marketability. Corporate training will provide RFID certification for existing technology professionals as well.”
Chicago-based Stratum Global and Farmington Hills, Mich.-based Dynamic Computer Corporation partnered with SC4’s Workforce Training Institute and Project Manager Dennis Valade to develop the 30-credit-hour program to teach RFID from the basics to full-scale project implementation. The course will prepare students to sit for the CompTIA RFID+ Certification test.
“Stratum Global was the most-qualified and best-prepared vendor to respond to SC4’s request for proposal in late February 2009,” Valade said. “Stratum Global has excellent experience in configuring and supplying RFID equipment at other community colleges throughout the country. Their expertise and attention to details has enabled our two colleges to present curricula content that will enhance our student’s occupational skills for this emerging technology. Registration now is open for these classes.”
Farida Ali, Dynamic’s President & CEO, said that this exemplifies a larger trend in high-tech training at local colleges.
“The workforce needs to be prepared to meet the growing demand for qualified technology professionals in emerging Michigan industries. Continuing to depend solely on 4-year universities and their engineering schools for RFID professionals is simply not realistic in today’s market,” said Ali.
Dynamic provides RFID-integrated solutions in many industries, specializing in health care, education, defense and manufacturing. The 30-year-old IT procurement company saw a need for RFID technology to serve its core customer base, and has since filled an industry niche as a vendor-neutral RFID systems integrator.
Stratum Global has been providing RFID software to meet the needs of industry verticals since 2003.
“Our customers use RFID to solve business problems across all verticals. The one consistent strategy is planning and research. St. Clair students will acquire the skill set to plan, research and implement RFID,” said Hood.