Solving the shortage of skilled Linux human resources.

One of the major issues identified by developing countries, against the adoption of Free/Open Source Software (FOSS) is the lack of human resources. Three identified groups are end users, system administrators and software developers. This pilot was developed, to address the shortage of Linux system administrators by using open standards for Linux skill sets, open content training materials, and lowering costs for certification.

Matching employers with trained human resources is an obstacle that needs to be overcome. To solve this problem, there needs to be defined skill sets. Employers need to know at least the minimum skill sets of employees. Training centers need to train future system administrators to match levels of skill sets that employers expect. The standard skill sets, will need to also take into account the benefits of Linux such as the freedom of choice of different Linux distributions and training programmes.

Vendor neutrality can be achieved with the use of open standards for Linux distributions and skill sets. For Linux, there is the Linux Standards Base by the Free Standards Group that defines a common base for Linux distributions. For skills sets, there is the vendor neutral, Linux Professional Institute certification which uses LSB as a standard for Linux. With both standards supported by major international vendors, certified system administrators will have recognized skill sets for different levels that are internationally recognized. It would also allow them to apply their skills for a variety of Linux distributions that comply to the LSB standard. Currently this includes Novell Suse Linux, Red Hat Enterprise Server, Fedora, Mandrake, TurboLinux and many others. Additionally open standards can be extended with local needs. For example an additional skill set standard for local language input method and other language specific issues could be developed that in conjunction with LSB and LPI, be used for a national Linux standard. This would avoid costly development and duplication effort of recreating national Linux skills and standards from scratch.

The final barrier is the cost of training for developing countries. Various vendor specific training courses and certification cost too much for developing countries. With a vendor neutral skill set standard, there is freedom of choice on how to attain the skills needed. Therefore any material that helps towards attaining the required skill sets is applicable, whether it is gained by using built-in system documentation, commercial books and online training programs or free materials. Applying the concepts of FOSS to documentation, LinuxIT a professional training center from the United Kingdom has released their LPI Level 1 training materials. This now provides trainers and trainees with low cost materials, which can be shared, improved and translated by all.

The costs of certification and testing however are still prohibitively expensive for developing countries costing as much as USD100 or more per examination. To address this LPI has developed low cost paper based examinations. To protect the integrity of these examinations, an independent proctor network needs to be established. IOSN with the co-operation of FOSS communities in 6 different ASEAN countries (Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam) has identified national proctors to be certified by LPI. These proctors will then be able to provide low cost paper based exams in their respective countries.

The pilot used the open content training materials and a local trainer, to train 20 participants for a 9 day intensive course On the final day, 7 proctors will be trained to be certified LPI proctors by LPI, while conducting the live examinations sat by the 20 participants.

Linux Training Participants and Trainer

For the training, 8 participants participated from Hanoi (Northern region), 4 from Hue and Danang (Central region) and 8 from Ho Chi Minh City (Southern Region). Participants represented both private sector, government agencies and academia. Course itself being an intensive one and in English required that participants have a few months of Linux experience as well as knowledge of English.

Nguyen Nhu Hao was the local trainer from SaigotCTT, who is only 1 out of 4 LPI Level 1 certified administrators/trainers in Vietnam. Which highlights the strong demand for the need for sustainable and affordable training and certification programmes.

Proctors and LPI Proctor

From left to right, Meng Kimly (Cambodia), Khamla Phoumin (Lao PDR), Romel Feria (Philippines), Bona Simanjuntak (Indonesia), Dr. Huynh Quyet Thang (Vietnam), Nah Soo Hoe (Malaysia), Dr. Vo Thieu Hung (Vietnam) and Glen McKnight (LPI)

Glen McKnight was the LPI representative to help oversee the examinations, and to train the proctor trainees from 6 South East Asian countries. The proctor trainees were certified to provide similar low cost LPI examinations for their respective countries.

Training Venue

ProNet is a new training center at Vietnam National University, IT Park dedicated towards the training of Vietnamese IT professionals.

Partners

The local partners for this pilot was the Management Board Vietnam for Open Source Software (MBVOSS), Ministry of Science and Technology, Information Technology Projects Management Office (ITPMO) Ho Chi Minh City and Vietnam National University, IT Park. LPI was represented by Mr. Glen McKnight.

Vietnamese Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) - Management Board Vietnam Open Source Software

The Vietnamese Ministry of Science and Technology has set up a specific program for the development and use of Open Source Software in the country. It has plans for the development of both user and developer training in Vietnam.

Information Technology Projects Management Office - Ho Chi Minh City

Information Technology Projects Management Office is responsible for co-ordinating and implementing a program for the development and application of Information Technology in Hochiminh city. As a subproject of "Applying and Developing Open Source Software in Vietnam for the 2004-2008 period" it is developing and implementing pilot projects for Open Source solutions for Desktop Applications, Small Medium Enterprises, e-Government, e-Learning and training.

Linux Professional Insitute

LPI was formally incorporated as a Canadian non-profit in October 25, 1999, and is headquartered near Toronto. They attempt to bring together an active and committed community with the companies and professionals who can fund and carry out LPI's initiatives. LPI is recognized worldwide as the premier organization advocating and assisting in the professional use of Linux, open source, and free software. LPI Linux certifications are vendor neutral.

Vietnam National University - IT Park

The computer system of Vietnam National University has a long history of Linux usage, and Linux and open source software is used extensively in their Mathematics faculty. The university is interested in developing a training program for Linux.

Outcomes

Linux Training Materials for LPI Level 1 Certification

It was found that while the LinuxIT training materials was enough to conduct the training, it was not comprehensive enough in it's coverage or explanation of some of the objectives of LPI 101 and 102 by the trainer. While experienced Linux administrators was a requirement there were still gaps in the explanation of concepts that participants required. This was overcome by the knowledge of the experienced trainer, through system documentation and the Linux Documentation Project.

The participants all felt that they learnt a lot throughout the course and that preparing of LPI Level 1 objectives, meant covering a large amount of materials. Participants had to cover basic installation and user managment, networking and other administration skills. By the end of the course they would have learnt how to setup basic networking services firewalls, routing and domain name servers. They would have also covered setting up mail, file and print servers. Security concepts were also covered.

Language was one issue that was raised during the first few days of the training. While participants did not have problems studying written materials, or sitting for the written exam in English, they found it difficult to follow the verbal explanation of concepts in English. Therefore there is a need for the training materials to be translated for countries where English as a medium of instruction may pose difficulties for trainees.

With use of FOSS and open content training materials, trainees are able to provide similar trainings after finishing this course.

Costs of Training and Certification

The training costs with the free training materials can now be brought down from as high as USD600-1000 per participant to possibly as low as USD50. Self learning via the free materials is also an option where training centers may not be available. With the use of FOSS, there are no additional licensing costs for software, neither are there any restrictions for anybody to conduct similar trainings in different environments such as schools or in-house trainings in companies and governmnent departments.

The costs for certification have been brought down from USD100 per paper at limited centers with Vue/Prometric testing systems, down to as low as USD20 (cost price) with paper examinations. This is far more affordable in developing countries.

Freedom to Apply Training Knowledge

With the use of FOSS and open content material, not only are trainees free to provide further trainings with the freedom to distribute software and materials, they are also free to apply knowledge gained by setting up and administrating as many Linux desktops and servers as their IT needs require without additional software licensing costs or restrictions.

Certified LPI Level 1

Four trainees managed to pass both LPI 101 and 102 papers to achieve LPI Level 1 certification. Congratulations to the participants below.

• Mr Nguyen Hoang Sang
• Mr Vu Trong Hai
• Mr Nguyen Ngoc Minh
• Mr Doan Minh Phuong

All the other trainees passed either LPI 101 or 102. We hope that they will also be able to achieve LPI Level 1 certification when they next sit for LPI examinations.

Proctors

Seven new proctors from South East Asia were certified to provide low cost LPI paper examinations.

• Cambodia

  Mr. Meng Kimly

• Indonesia

  Bona Simanjuntak - ICT Watch

• Lao PDR

  Khamla Phoumin - Department of Communication

• Malaysia

  Nah Soo Hoe - Malaysian National Computer Confederation - Open Source Special Interest Group

• Philippines

  Rommel Feria - University of Philippines Diliman

• Vietnam

  Dr. Vo Thieu Hung - Vietnam National University

  Dr. Huynh Quyet Thang - Hanoi University of Technology

Future outputs

GNUFDL Linux Training Materials

Immediate next steps are to fund to improve the existing training materials so that they can be certified to comply with LPI Level 1 objectives. Additionally an instructor guide and slides will also need to be created to assist new trainers in conducting their own training programs.

Co-ordinate localization

The materials will also need to be localized. It is advisable that localization projects be part of the Free GNU/Linux Administration Manuals so that localized and updated versions of the training materials are available as well as the benefits of more collaboration and contributers.

Additional training programmes

Training of Trainers

After the training materials are updated, it is planned to hold more training of trainers programs in other countries, where they are needed.

In Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City has already approved plans to hold 20 more training of trainers pilots.

Vocational High Schools/Colleges

It has been suggested by Bona Simanjuntak from Indonesia, that this kind of training course can be run in vocational training centers where students are certified for a skill, in this case Linux system administration.

Additional Proctors

Proctors from Indonesia and Philippines raised concerns that, a single proctor will not be enough to meet the demand. Additional proctors will need to be certified for these countries, and this will be co-ordinated with local proctors and LPI next year based on demand in individual countries.

In the Philippines it was raised by Romel Feria, that a possible network of proctors from academia be set up throughout the country to help administer the certification exam labs to support private sector training programs.

Advocacy

Through press releases and local FOSS communities, the availability now of free training materials and affordable certification needs to be made known to the wider IT community. Training companies, need to know that they can now teach LPI Linux courses and coordinate with a national proctor for their students to sit certification exams. There is no longer a monopoly on training centers. Businesses also need to know that they can now hire certified Linux system administrators that will have the basic skill sets they need to deploy or migrage to Linux solutions.