Press releases

New Java Programming Certificate Series available from the O'Reilly School of Technology: Java Certification Arms Aspiring Programmers with Valuable Skills

Press release: November 11, 2008

Sebastopol, CAThe O'Reilly School of Technology (OST) has announced the addition of a new Java Programming Certificate Series to its current list of offerings. Designed to introduce beginning and entry-level programming students to Java and object-oriented concepts, the program helps students progressively attain the advanced skills they need to compete in today's career market. With satisfactory completion of the series, students earn a Certificate for Professional Development from the University of Illinois Office of Continuing Education.

"This certificate series is ideal for aspiring programmers, whether they have a background in technology or not," notes Scott Gray, director of the O'Reilly School of Technology. "It's an ideal means for job seekers or people who are contemplating a career change to add valuable skills to their resumes. And it's not just words on paper--our courses have been shown to be exceptionally effective in truly teaching these skills."

As part of the Java Programming Certificate Series, students learn to create applications in Java that utilize object-oriented design, JDBC (Java Database Connectivity), multithreading, interactive GUI (Graphical User Interface), I/O and sockets. Each course in the four-part series takes approximately 40 hours to complete. Students have dedicated instructors, but can work through the courses at their own speed, on their own time.

Students will also use OST's unique online Learning Sandbox® called Ellipse. This is a special learning version of the Eclipse open source IDE (Integrated Development Environment), where students apply new skills as they are presented by completing real-world projects.

"With Ellipse, students and instructors can easily interact, review and modify code asynchronously, and share feedback," says Gray. "It greatly simplifies the workflow and learning process."

The O'Reilly School of Technology bases its courses on the premise that for people to learn any skill they must immerse themselves in the skill and practice. The school employs an online learning technique called "useractive learning" in which the student or "user" is actively engaged in building and creating projects while the instructional material is presented. There are no presentation-heavy videos and simulations to sit through.

"You can't teach people to solve problems by solving problems for them," observes Gray. "Our success is based on the fact that we teach our students to learn. We show them that they can solve problems on their own."

In addition to the Java Programming Certificate Series, the O'Reilly School of Technologycurrently offers certification in Client-Side Web Programming, Linux/Unix System Administration, Web Programming, Open Source Programming, and .NET Programming.

Additional Resources:
For more information about the O'Reilly School of Technology, see: oreillyschool.com.

About O’Reilly

O’Reilly Media spreads the knowledge of innovators through its books, online services, magazines, and conferences. Since 1978, O’Reilly Media has been a chronicler and catalyst of cutting-edge development, homing in on the technology trends that really matter and spurring their adoption by amplifying “faint signals” from the alpha geeks who are creating the future. An active participant in the technology community, the company has a long history of advocacy, meme-making, and evangelism.

Email a link to this press release