Drupal Goes to College

Published April 7, 2015

Stetson Celebration Campus

DrupalEasy is so excited to announce that we are teaming up with Stetson University to present the first comprehensive, university-based Drupal career professional development program in Florida! The Drupal Career Certificate Program (DCCP), which is built on DrupalEasy’s Drupal Career Starter Program curriculum, marks an official entrance to the Drupal talent pipeline through the US higher education system. The DCCP, now part of the university’s Boundless Learning programs, will be officially announced at Florida DrupalCamp 2015!  The first course will kick off this Fall at the Stetson Celebration Center located right in the middle of Florida's High Tech corridor on the outskirts of Orlando.

It’s been an interesting road for us as we search for the best ways to scale up Drupal career training. In one respect, we have great access to the Drupal Community, and have been building recognition for our passion to develop high-quality Drupal talent with our comprehensive in-person and virtual career training programs. The long pole has always been reaching beyond the Drupal community. We had early success in our immediate region through the workforce system working with transitioning aerospace IT folks who needed a new direction after Shuttle was cancelled. But, we discovered, that group, with its level of passion and technical background, is unique among the usual workforce system clientele who are not part of a mass tech layoff.

We have also talked to a few bootcamp-style coding schools, who although interested in Drupal-specific programs, have mostly co-working/self-teaching business models that don’t lend themselves to our instructor-intensive, community-building, long-form approach. The model we found that we hope hits the nail on the head is through higher education, primarily in professional development/continuing education programs. When we met the innovative thinkers at Stetson, the concept came together pretty quickly, with buy-in at every level of the university. Our quality focus, the importance of the Drupal community, creating a talent pipeline – they totally get it, and we could not be more pleased with the potential.

Drupal at Stetson logo We feel pretty lucky to have a partner in Stetson, which has been around since the late 1800’s, and has thrived in great part because it is built on blazing new trails with high quality education programs in disciplines that have great need for talent. This university Drupal career focused program joins the ranks of quite a few other impressive firsts for Stetson, including Florida’s first law school, (which accepted and graduated Florida’s first female law students!) its first college newspaper, and the first school of business administration in the state.

This is a great opportunity to not only scale up our career programs, but to also help build up the Drupal talent pool for the community by creating a more recognizable and conspicuous career path in Drupal for those who are not in the community. It’s a chance for Drupal to be promoted to those who have the capabilities, but perhaps not the familiarity with Drupal to learn more about the options, potential and community that have drawn in so many of us. We are excited to part of this partnership between two vastly different organizations that are built on the same premises of educational goodness and light.

As we build our career programs and begin developing our Drupal 8 based program, we are looking to forge similar partnerships in other areas of the country (and the world,) so please let me know if you have an interest or a suggestion in your region.

The inaugural Stetson DCCP begins September 15 at the Stetson University Celebration Center, and runs every Tuesday and Thursday evening from 5:30 – 9:00 pm EDT until the first week of December. For more information, come see us at the super-fantasitic platinum sponsor Stetson Drupal Training table at Florida DrupalCamp, or visit www.stetson.edu/drupal-training.

Comments

This is awesome and congratulations! My first experience with Drupal was in Unviersity and it has certainly served me well throughout my career.

Submitted by Guest (not verified) on Wed, 04/08/2015 - 20:46

Great step. I admire on two counts: I like Drupal and that someone has thought to make it part of formal learning. This is a new and valuable thought.

Submitted by Guest (not verified) on Wed, 04/22/2015 - 13:50

Many congratulations to the drupaleasy for such a big step in its growth. keep going with the good work.

Submitted by Guest (not verified) on Thu, 04/23/2015 - 21:45

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