INFRASTRUCTURE MASONS

IT SLIGO AND HELHA DELIVERING DATA CENTRE FACILITIES ENGINEERS

County Sligo on the north-west coast of Ireland , and Haute Ecole Louvain en Hainaut ( HELHa ) in Mons , Belgium , in partnership with Google , Facebook and Microsoft , have taken a global lead in public institution online training of data centre facilities engineers .

IT Sligo BEng in Data Centre Facilities Engineering Data Centres are a big business in Ireland , and IT Sligo has risen to support the industry ’ s needs . IT Sligo began online training in 2002 , and this focus has served the institution very well as IT Sligo now has about 5000 online learners this year , the largest cohort in Ireland . The school ’ s online Bachelor ’ s degree in Data Centre Facilities Engineering ( EU Level 6 ) has also grown , and they regularly fill their 24 students per year cohort . “ Most of our students now come from the firms providing support and services to the hyperscalers ,” said Conor Lawlor , Course Coordinator for the DC Engineering programme .

Incoming students must have a Higher Certificate in a related technical field or have completed a Senior Trades Craft Apprenticeship and have five years ’ experience . The degree is a one-year add-on but is taken part-time over two academic years . Lawlor continued , “ Most of our students have full-time jobs , so they attend class two evenings a week , working from home . Each lecture is recorded , so the students don ’ t have to attend live if they so wish .” The high point of each year is the weeklong hands-on lab taught at HELHa . “ We were initially worried that students would be turned off about having to take the time and expense to travel to Belgium , but they really look forward to it ,” continued Lawlor . “ The lab facilities at HELHa are really good , and it provides a very good opportunity to experience data centre technologies in a different European country .”

HELHa Masters in Data Centre Engineering HELHa offers an online “ European Master ’ s ” ( EU Level 7 ) certificate / degree in Data Centre Engineering that is typically a twoyear programme but can be earned in one academic year if the student completed IT Sligo ’ s BEng programme . “ Our students include both people from other sectors and industries who are upskilling to work in Data Centres , and also BEng students from IT Sligo and other schools who want to earn a Masters . Regardless of their background , this programme provides the Data Centre industry with staff who are qualified to provide in-depth skills necessary for the technical management and operation of data centre facilities ,” commented Valérie Seront , Director of the School of Engineering at HELHa . “ The tuition for this programme is 3500 €/ year . iMasons scholarships allow us to make this training available to all qualified applicants . These scholarships have been particularly important for some of our non-EU students , including several from Africa , enabling us to supply talent globally .”

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