LPI partners with Portuguese government agency on Linux certification and training

“This agreement demonstrates the growing need of academic institutions around the world to embrace professional IT skills certification in Linux and Open Source. LPI is ideally positioned to serve this need due to our vendor-neutral position and our acceptance as a recognized global standard in Linux certification,” said Jim Lacey, president and CEO of the Linux Professional Institute. Mr. Lacey indicated that LPI's affiliate in the region would be providing “train-the-trainer” programs to certify instructors within participating academic institutions under this initiative in addition to recruiting LPI Approved Training Partners (LPI-ATP) and LPI Approved Academic Partners (LPI-AAP).

Luís Magalhães, President of UMIC, added that "with the inclusion of LPI in the ICT Academies on Higher Education launched and steered by UMIC, these academies can now provide training and certification of skills in key areas of open source technology and free software, which are having a growing demand both in the private and public sector in Portugal." He noted that LPI joins a number of other recognized IT training and certification programs that have been working with UMIC within higher education institutions in Portugal and include Microsoft, Cisco Systems Inc., Sun Microsystems and SAP. The announcement of LPI's inclusion within the EMIC program was made during the European Commission's 1st European e-Skills Week and included an additional announcement of EMIC's initiative with SAS on training and certification in IT management and business analysis.

The Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education through UMIC has also been working with Portugal's universities and polytechnics over the past five years to develop more than 60 professional training courses in ICT for more than 2,200 students. These courses provide for a nationally-recognized technological specialization diploma offered by 28 institutions--both public and private--and are in response to the growing need in both the ICT industry and user organizations for trained personnel with professional skills.

The Linux Professional Institute is globally supported by the IT industry, enterprise customers, community professionals, government entities and the educational community. LPI's certification program is supported by an affiliate network spanning five continents and is distributed worldwide in multiple languages in more than 7,000 testing locations. Since 1999, LPI has delivered over 230,000 exams and 75,000 LPIC certifications around the world.

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About the Linux Professional Institute:

The Linux Professional Institute promotes and certifies essential skills on Linux and Open Source technologies through the global delivery of comprehensive, top-quality, vendor-independent exams. Established as an international non-profit organization in September 1999 by the Linux community, the Linux Professional Institute continues to demonstrate recognized global leadership in the certification of Linux professionals. LPI advances the Linux and Open Source movement through strategic partners, sponsorships, innovative programs and community development activities. LPI's major financial sponsors are Platinum Sponsors IBM, Linux Journal, Linux Magazine, Novell, SGI, and TurboLinux as well as Gold Sponsors, HP and IDG.

ABOUT UMIC

UMIC - Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento, IP is the Portuguese public agency with the mission to coordinate policies for the information society and mobilize it by promoting awareness, qualification and research activities. As part of its mission, UMIC promotes the formation and recognition of ICT skills. See [HYPERLINK@umic.pt] for additional information.

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