To help fill the IT workforce gap, UMBC has partnered with Oracle Corporation, the world's largest supplier of software for information management, to become an official member of the Oracle Academic Initiative (OIA). UMBC will offer Oracle Certified Professional training courses beginning in January 2000 with the Oracle8 Certified Database Administrator track.

"This partnership," said Doug Kendzierski, associate vice provost for continuing education and information technology, "allows UMBC to train the next generation of database administrators and developers in the dominant commercial database engine for industrial applications. It pairs the region's leader in technology education with the largest IT training organization in the world."

As a member of the Oracle Academic Initiative, UMBC can provide students with Oracle-authorized curricula and exceptional resources for Oracle Certified Professional (OCP) exam preparation, the option to participate, free of charge, in the Oracle Academic Initiative's Job Recruitment Database, (a collection of resumes accessible to Oracle corporate customers and partners around the world), free Oracle software licenses for self study, and significantly discounted examination fees.

Additional OCP training is in development with Oracle Application Developer Certification classes to launch in summer 2000. All courses take place at the UMBC Technology Center.

For more information, call Continuing Education at (410) 455-2336 or view the website: continuinged.umbc.edu/oracle.