Bala Cynwyd-based DPT Consulting has been training IT professionals for fifteen years. We asked CEO Lucy Schneiberg to tell us how her company is meeting the challenges and changes in the training industry.
Although you're a consulting firm, you sound almost more like a training school. What made you decide to do both?
DPT Consulting Group offers a combination of educational consulting services, technical, and IT soft-skills training that enable clients to maximize the technical skills of their IT employees. We had been involved in the education process since 1987 when we owned a school; you could just say that we have a passion for education.
How has the economic slowdown affected each side of your business, consulting and training?
We have certainly experienced the effect of the slowdown. We learned to work together with fewer resources and more efficiently as a team, and we pulled through. Only the best companies survive in this environment.
The softening information technology sector has put a lot of experienced programmers in the position of requiring a skills upgrade in order to stay on board at their current company or to improve their chances of moving to a new employer. In response to this trend, DPT has created several training boot camps aimed at helping individuals rebuild and retool their IT skills.
For example, the J2EE/WebSphere Boot Camp is an extended, four-month evening-class version of exactly what DPT presents to its corporate clients. Upon completion of the J2EE boot camp, participants will have covered topics such as Java, Object Oriented Analysis and Design, UML, XML, J2EE, JSP, EJB, WebSphere/WebLogic Application Servers, and WebSphere Studio. At the same time, they will have completed an entire project, including a re-usable application that they can offer as a demonstration. They also will be prepared to take Sun certification exams.
We also offer CareerPath, an intense training program that provides complete IT skill sets to new college recruits and existing non-technical employees. The program is designed to allow participants to hit the ground running. This program provides valuable new IT employees and also increases overall morale and loyalty within a company by offering career development to employees.
How many students do you train every year?
We train more than 1,000 students per year. We currently have about 20 employees, and we can deliver training in more than 100 major cities across the country.
What is your philosophical approach to teaching?
DPT's educational philosophy, based on adult learning principles and over 14 years of experience in IT training, stresses the importance of strong technical training complemented by hands-on implementation. Accordingly, DPT's curriculum is geared toward a balance of classroom instruction and lab-based, hands-on training. DPT labs are based on actual business examples that can often be tailored to our client's industry.
What are some of your most popular classes?
J2EE Development with Websphere or Weblogic, Websphere Studio Application Developer, XML, and Oracle9I are some of our most popular offerings.
What plans do you have for the future?
For the future we plan to open more training facilities to accommodate our clients, build more partnerships to provide a wide spectrum of IT, and be the one source of IT training for all of our clients.
do you know a local company we should cover? Let us know about it. Send your local profile candidates to dan@computeruser.com.
