MCC and Pegasystems create new course for programming students
MCC is working with company Pegasystems to develop a new information technology course that begins Oct. 25.
The relationship began when Pegasystems reached out to MCC to gauge interest in creating an IT course specifically designed to train students in how to utilize Pega technologies.
“Knowing the local market for not only Phoenix technologies but also knowing the clients and partners that we have using Pega in Phoenix, I knew there was definitely a supply and demand imbalance,” said senior manager of the Pega University Program Jason Wilhelm.
The course is broken up into two 8-week sections. The first of the sections begins Oct. 25 and runs to MCC’s winter break. “Over that winter break, I personally will be hosting certification test prep sessions for students to get them ready for their certification,” said Wilhelm.
The second section will begin at the start of the spring semester and run through the first eight weeks, finishing in mid-March.
“The training that we’re going through is, basically it teaches you how to implement Pega at a system architect level,” said MCC programming professor Mike Bogner. “What this course is focusing on is a lot of the more complex setting up of the various cases that businesses want set up.”
The course is designed for students who have already begun pursuing a degree in programming and requires prior knowledge of information technology.
“We are recommending that students who take this course have gone through some object-oriented programming courses using Java, C++, or C#. They should also have experience with a database course such as ISQL, SQL Server, or Oracle,” said Bogner.
This course will be the first offered by a community college in the country. Pegasystems has worked with other four-year universities; however, MCC will be the first to partner with the company to create specific coursework for Pegasystems architect essentials course.
“The Pega University Program is a well-established program. We have 27 universities around the globe that are teaching Pega technologies to students,” said Wilhelm.
Although it is designed to be more advanced, the course still provides useful information for students to be able to apply elsewhere in the IT industry.
“You can look at a lot of the career paths you go down; you need to know something about technology. It isn’t just going into IT on a specific job, it may be going into some of the popular jobs that are being created in the Arizona area, like the manufacturing jobs,” said Bogner.
