How do we teach university students to use Kentico

From time to time a Kentico partner ask me if I could relocate myself permanently and work for them full time. Unfortunately, I can’t do that because I am a freelancer and I am loyal to my current clients. However, I see there is a bigger problem than some partners need a developer. There is a global issue of a small number of developers with Kentico experience. At the time I was thinking about the problem my dear friends from Kentico asked me to train young smart people from universities how to build websites in Kentico. That’s just a brilliant idea which could bring a solution to the problem. In this post I will tell you what is a business model behind the training and what can students learn during the training.

The business model

As I referred above, the problem is that Kentico partners have projects and want to grow but they don’t have enough developers and can't find new candidates. A solution could be a training with a following model:

1. Kentico partner contacts Kentico (the company) or me with a training request.
2. Kentico partner in co-operation with Kentico finds a way how to reach students of computer science at local universities.
3. Kentico partner ensures an event date and location. Ideally in their offices.
4. Kentico ensures trainers (probably me and one of Kentico consultants).
5. During 3 days of training Kentico trainers teach students how to create a Kentico website from scratch. During that time the Kentico partner could also present themselves. First 2 days are focused on theory of Portal Engine and Customizations. The third day is all about workshop where students get real business requirements and create a website project in teams.
6. After the workshop the Kentico partner can show students their offices and talk to them in person.

The main benefit of such a training is that university students are having a training focused on basics of Kentico directly in Kentico partner’s offices. During the training Kentico partner can find out who could be just the right candidates for their currently opened positions. After the training the Kentico partner can talk to them in person and make them more interested.

New opportunities

This year we had organized 3 courses so far. Two in Brno and one in Prague, both in Czech Republic. I must say, it has been a great experience to bring young students and Kentico partners together. In Prague we did a training in co-operation with Actum and they found 6 candidates for their job opportunities.

In Brno where Kentico headquarters is situated more than 250 students from 3 universities were interested in our training. We did 2 trainings in co-operation with Autocont and Bluesoft. This summer we are going to organize two more trainings in Brno.

All of the courses we had organized were in Czech Republic but we would like to go abroad! So, if you really lack of developers our training could be beneficial for you. Please, contact me at hello@milanlund.com if you are interested. I will pass your request on Kentico and I am sure we can find a way how to organize a training in your office. What can students learn

The training takes 3 days. The first day is focused on developing websites in the Kentico Portal engine and front-end development:

• Creating a new website
• Crating CSS
• Creating Master page and page templates
• Integrating HTML into a page layout
• Working with web parts and widgets
• Creating a page type
• Writing transformations
• Macro basics
• Creating an On-line form

The second day is focused on Customizations:

• Kentico API
• Event handlers
• K# macros
• Creating Web parts
• Creating Custom modules

The third day we organize a workshop with students. They get business requirements and they have to create a website using Kentico in teams.

In case you decide to organize a training in your office and you have different requirements for the agenda it is not a problem to adjust it according to your needs.

Conclusion

Training for university students is a great opportunity for Kentico partners to bring potential employees into their offices and teach them basics of Kentico. Please, contact me at hello@milanlund.com if you are interested. I will pass your request on Kentico and I am sure we can find a way how to organize a training in your office.