When Antonio Rice talks about putting tools in a tool belt, he refers to more than just a career in carpentry. Rice, the training services manager for Information Technology and Communications (ITC), sees technological skills as essential devices, or tools, for any graduating student.
"You have a toolbelt," Rice said, leaning back in a chair in his Wilson Hall office. "The object is to get as many tools as possible and make yourself as marketable as possible."
To help computer-shy students gain a competitive edge in the job market, ITC offers free workshops starting this month, with classes on topics ranging from basic HTML to C++ - skills, which make students "very desirable" to potential employers, Rice said.
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"Considering 95 percent of the entering first-year class came with computers, it is a good idea to know how to use them to the fullest capacity," he said. "If students are looking for technical skills in order to be a better student or just more computer savvy, ITC is the place to be."
ITC's Workshops, currently offered throughout the month of October, meet on several different days and times to accommodate busy schedules. Students may register online beforehand at http://www.itc.virginia.edu/training/student or simply take advantage of available seats the night of the course.
"We focus on the basic technical skills students need, which are good things to know," said Rice, who is in charge of technical training for students, faculty and staff.
The training program, now in its third year, offers monthly classes ranging from Power Point basics such as creating a personalized slideshow, to "high-end" computer training, which teaches students computer programming in much more advanced areas.
This may be especially important when future employers ask if you are familiar with Perl, and you know he or she is referring to a computer program and not small, shiny treasures.
But knowledge of such complex systems may come after mastering Netscape Composer, Unix for Web Designers, and Excel Basics, all of which are covered in ITC's free training workshops.
The "high-end" workshops, for more experienced computer users, cover C++, HTML and Perl programming.
They also include informational text materials, which warrant a $20 registration fee. According to Rice, the skills and books students receive exceed the cost of the workshop.
"Most students use these high-end training courses to build their resumes," Rice said.
"But these are skills that every student should know and needs to know for the future. Any career might require you to build a Web page or put Internet fundamentals to work."
So ITC seems to be the gift that keeps on giving: providing technical skills that will be useful long after graduation.
But not all students get the message. Many graduate from the University only using their computers for such basic functions as word processing.
"A lot of students aren't even aware there is an ITC Help Desk, let alone workshops to increase computer literacy," said first-year College student Earthen Johnson, a Computing Advisor for the first-year residence halls.
And when ITC says it is accessible, it means more than the flexibility of its course offerings: students can tune in to classes shown on University cable channels 13 and 49 or even check out instructional video tapes to be used at their convenience at home.
As Rice stressed, "With technology being so accessible, this is a very exciting time to be a student at the University"
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