Montgomery County Community College Partners with Toolwire and Citrix to Train IT Professionals

PLEASANTON, Calif., Jan. 19, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Montgomery County Community College (www.mc3.edu) has introduced a series of new courses designed to train the next generation of Information Technology professionals. The coursework was developed to industry certification standards by Citrix Systems, Inc. (www.citrix.com), a global leader in application delivery infrastructure, and Toolwire, Inc. (www.toolwire.com), a global leader in experiential learning technologies.

More than 230,000 organizations worldwide rely on Citrix, a leading provider of virtual computing solutions, for help in building simpler, cost-effective virtual work style and data center environments.

"The Cloud era is here," cites Dan Myers, Academic Programs Manager at Citrix.  "We created the Citrix Academic Network to provide resources and programs to help IT educators and students learn the right skills for this new era.  Montgomery County Community College is piloting our new IT Academy program, and Toolwire is engaged to offer a low-cost remote lab solution for our virtualization courses.  It is a great example of public-private partnerships working together to develop the workforce of tomorrow."

The goal at Montgomery County Community College, an authorized Citrix IT Academy, is to provide its students with the right certifications so that they can be at the heart of today's IT transformation.  Registration is still open for the three courses that will begin on January 30th: XENServer, XENApp, and XENDesktop.

"Virtualization and cloud technologies are transforming the way business is done—and to be on the leading edge where the high-level jobs are, you need the right training, right now," commented Suzanne Holloman, Dean of Workforce Development and Continuing Education at Montgomery County Community College.  "Our certified instructors are trained directly by Citrix to teach students the in-demand job skills that drive virtual computing while preparing them for the Citrix Certified Administrator (CCA) exam.  In addition, we will also support students by connecting them to job opportunities with Citrix partners and customers."

A unique aspect of this course will be the cost-effective, scalable delivery of hands-on experiential learning technologies, developed by Toolwire.  Four years ago, Citrix turned to Toolwire to deliver on-demand lab environments to train Citrix worldwide channel partners.   For Montgomery, the value proposition for implementing Toolwire's hands-on learning technologies into these courses was very similar to what originally attracted Citrix:

• A reduction in training expenditures associated with site set-up of physical lab hardware.
• Easy and fast scalability, providing a competitive edge as the program grows.
• The ability for students to access hands-on labs anytime, anywhere instead of having to visit a physical campus.
• A Sandbox Environment that users may access to refresh, reinforce, explore and practice critical Citrix learning objectives.

Through Toolwire's LiveLabs, students will get in-depth experience configuring and managing virtual servers such as Windows and Linux virtual machines. Students will also learn how to centralize and manage desktops and datacenter applications in order to deliver them as a service to users anywhere.

"The IT landscape of today needs a new generation of skilled IT professionals," said Julieann Scalisi, Vice President of Global Education for Citrix.  "By way of this new program, Citrix is meeting the skills demand by partnering with community colleges and universities to ensure that students can obtain a degree that is guaranteed to provide value and help them establish and advance their careers.  Today's job market continues to be very competitive therefore those entering the workforce must differentiate themselves on their resumes.  Earning a college degree is no longer optional; it is now required for many professional positions.  One way to stand out is to enter the workforce with an in demand certification like a CCA on our virtualization products and hands on practice with these products.  This new program delivers both of those value-added differentiators."

The partnership between Montgomery County Community College, Toolwire, and Citrix is a model of how constructive collaboration can lead to greater sustainability for community colleges, the private sector, and our economy.  

"We work closely with our partner institutions to co-create innovative educational technologies to enhance their curriculum," commented Cameron D. Crowe, Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Toolwire. "This Citrix virtualization project represents a big step forward for Montgomery County Community College by enabling them to provide leading-edge technology skills to their students."

About Montgomery County Community College
Montgomery County Community College has two conveniently located campuses in Blue Bell and Pottstown, Pa. The College boasts a nationally recognized, award-winning faculty committed to working closely together with students in the learning process. The College's comprehensive curriculum includes 85 associate degree/certificate programs in 59 areas of study, including eight complete degrees offered entirely online, and specialized workforce development and continuing education programs, all of which leverage the College's nationally ranked use of innovative technology.

About Toolwire
Toolwire is a learning solutions provider specializing in products and services for experiential learning. Serving global leaders in both the private sector and Higher Education, Toolwire's core competencies include developing media-rich educational content and providing Learning-as-a-Service that fully supports the needs of learning institutions. Toolwire Learnscapes, StudentDesktops, Scenarios, and LiveLabs provide the quickest, most effective way to develop skills and enhance student success. These innovative learning solutions enable organizations to provide "virtual internships" across a broad range of subjects including Business, Health Care, Legal, Information Technology, and more. For more information, please visit www.toolwire.com.

About the Citrix Academic Network
The Citrix Academic Network provides resources and an IT Academy program to help students and educators build knowledge and develop the hands-on skills needed to power the world's transformation to virtual and cloud computing. For more information about the Citrix Academic Network, go to http://www.citrix.com/academic.  For more information about training and the industry-recognized certifications offered by Citrix, go to http://www.citrixeducation.com.

Citrix® is a trademark of Citrix Systems, Inc. and/or one or more of its subsidiaries, and may be registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and in other countries. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are property of their respective owners.

Media Contact:
Peyton Williams
Toolwire, Inc.
1-866-935-8665 Ext. 169
[email protected]

SOURCE Toolwire