TRAINING OF IT SPECIALISTS IN UNIVERSITY COMPUTER CENTRE

In Germany, the so-called dual training system provides practice-oriented vocational training alongside the possibility of studying at universities and universities of applied sciences. This dual form of training is divided into a practical part in a company and a school-based part in a vocational school. At present, it is difficult to find good skilled workers in the IT sector in Germany. Vocational training at one's own location is one way of counteracting this shortage of skilled workers and improving personnel development in university computer centres. Many german universities train IT specialists in the IT sector and although there is a strong overall trend towards academic training in Germany, vocational training in the IT sector is of great importance. In terms of content, training at the Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf is no different from training in a company. Since 2016, the university's computer centre, i.e. the Centre for Information and Media Technology (ZIM), has been offering training for IT specialists with main focus in application development or system integration. The fields of work of IT specialists are very diverse. In the field of application development, trainees develop and program tailor-made software solutions. For this they use programming languages and tools, such as developer tools. In the field of system integration, the trainees implement customer-specific information and communication solutions. They network hardware and software components to create complex systems. In addition, trainees from both disciplines advise or train users. The training facility at the ZIM was newly established for the first trainees in 2016. It started with various interns in the context of retraining measures to become an IT specialist in order to gain first experiences with project-based training and knowledge with regard to final exams. It started with two applicants per year, so that after three years six trainees are working at the ZIM. In addition, qualified trainers and supervisors for the trainees had to be identified, since at least one trainer must also prove the additional qualification of the training aptitude test. At the same time, as an additional service to the day-to-day business, the ZIM is represented on the official examination committee, so that an evaluation could be made for how the trainees can be adequately prepared for the final company examination. Based on a company training plan, the trainees are taught different skills through different types of projects. Computer centers offer different services in the universities and only changes to the services are organized through projects. Due to the project-based orientation of IT specialist training, the perspective view of an IT company first had to adapt to this project-oriented approach to teaching training content. Among other things, projects were designed to solve urgent problems, such as the development of a web interface, but also evaluations of software for possible new services or the creation of tutorial videos for existing services were tasks for the trainees. In this way, interesting projects can be developed together with trainees, and at the same time qualified personnel can be trained for their own company. In order to support the special nature and the advantages of vocational training at a university, the trainees take part in computer science lectures and thus additionally gain their first experience in an academic education.


INTRODUCTION
As compared to vocational training, a traditional university course of study offers more extensive, longterm career prospects. You have more time off, but you have to organise your working hours independently and perhaps even work part-time to finance your own studies. At the same time, practical vocational training gives you a direct entry into working life, earns your own salary, but still keeps you in school. The future opportunities are manifold: the company providing training can take the trainee directly into a long-term employment relationship, or one can also start self-employment through further training opportunities. Even a subsequent course of study following completion of vocational training has been considered a good base for a promising career for years.
The Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf (HHU) educates not only more than 30,000 students but also about 50 trainees in a wide variety of professions. These trainees receive a basic vocational qualification that will enable them to hold their own in professional life later on. The conditions for the trainees are the same with regard to the training remuneration and the vocational school, but differ in the examination results which are specified by the Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK), for example.
Especially in university computer centres there is a broad vocational training potential due to the very diverse IT topics and at some universities IT specialists have been trained for years. The transfer of an experienced trainer to the Centre for Information and Media Technology (ZIM) at the HHU opened up new opportunities for the vocational training of IT specialists, which were planned for 2015 and implemented from 2016. The ZIM consists of three departments in which a wide range of trainingspecific topics can be found, on whom the trainees can work.
After preliminary talks with the Human Resources Department and the approval of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce, up to 16 trainees per training year can be employed at the ZIM. Training as an IT specialist lasts three years, during which the trainees alternately attend vocational school and the company. These and other regulations are laid down in the IT Specialist Training Ordinance, which refers to the new Vocational Training Act (BBiG) [1].
After only three years, we could have employed 48 trainees, but we started with two trainees and plan to train more per year after good experience.

METHODOLOGY
To prepare for the new trainees, various points had to be thought through at the ZIM. On the basis of discussions with other vocational training institutions, we decided not to let the trainees be taught in blocks for several weeks at the vocational school, but on fixed weekdays. Thanks to the established vocational school model, we have found a suitable vocational school in Hilden. On other weekdays, they work at the workplace and are also not permanently assigned to any particular department, but are supervised by various trainers. We consulted with the building management regarding office space for the new trainees in order to convert several small offices into one multi-purpose office for six trainees. However, before the first call for applications was published, we gradually exchanged ideas with colleagues from other universities in the "Training Working Group" of the association "Centres for Communication Processing in Research and Teaching" (ZKI) and contacted universities which already successfully run a training company at their institution.
The traineeships were publicly advertised and the apprentices were hired according to an orderly procedure: First, the applicants were invited to a standardised recruitment test. After the test, the most suitable candidates were invited to an interview where they could present a topic of their choice. After the interviews, good candidates usually emerge for recruitment. A few experiences have shown that a second smaller programming test with one partial task at home and another partial task at a third appointment on site can clarify last doubts about the suitability of the candidates.
Initially, there are various programme items for all new trainees at the university, such as the so-called "etiquette for trainees", instructions on occupational safety and data protection or guided tours of university facilities such as the botanical gardens. Once they have become acquainted with the working environment and their new colleagues on site, the trainees should be able to draw up and explain an organisation chart and work alternately in the first few months in first-level support (helpdesk) to get to know their own company better. In addition, each trainee should be able to put together his or her own computer workstation and must write a weekly report booklet as proof of training. Following the first few weeks, we also hold interviews with the first-year trainees in order to sound out their interests, skills and aptitudes. In addition, the trainees can attend a soldering course or take a guided tour through the supply tunnel under the campus.
In the second year of training, in addition to examinations in various school subjects and half-yearly reports, apprentices must take a written intermediate examination and then, depending on the subject, complete and document a final project at the end of training. At the end of the course, this project is presented to the Chamber of Industry and Commerce's examination board and discussed in the expert discussion that follows. Project documentation as well as presentation and expert discussion are graded in addition to the written final examination and are a prerequisite for obtaining the qualification as IT specialist.
Projects and their organisation are generally important components of IT specialist training, so it was important to define training projects with reference to the central IT services of the university computer centre. In order to focus the training company more strongly on this type of project perspective, interns were first given the opportunity to complete the practical part of their retraining as IT specialists at the ZIM. This enabled us to test different training methods in productive use: different locations, such as temporary assistance in the helpdesk or different trainers from all areas at the ZIM. Among others, we use tools for communication like Rocket.Chat and different video platforms like Jitsi, Webex and BigBlueButton, but also Gitlab for versioning, Jira for project management and the wiki platform Confluence for documentation and collaboration.
A fixed date is set every two weeks for each new school year (Jour-fixe), on which all trainees and all trainers meet and exchange information. Among other things, the current project status is briefly presented. The project process within Jira can be described as follows: As soon as an instructor has planned a new project, it is posted as an issue in Jira. After a trainee has been found for this project, a planning meeting is held and the trainee can start with the project. After a certain period of time, the project will be presented in an interim presentation during the Jour-fixe, and after all questions and details have been clarified, it will be presented again at the end of the project. If the project is a final project, specifications and requirement specifications are also written [2] [3]. The open-plan office allows trainees to exchange information and experiences with each other and provides good support, also in joint projects.

RESULTS
Having successfully trained three IT specialists, two of them specializing in application development and one system integrator, we have taken on a total of three new trainees specializing in application development in the current training year 2020/21. At the ZIM we currently employ 8 trainees, divided equally by gender, but only 2 system integrators and 6 application developers. In addition, 31 trainees have worked with us, mainly as interns for school or university students, but also during retraining as IT specialists or as a reintegration measure (see "Tab. 1").

Onboarding
During the regular discussions and also in the final meetings that we have with the trainees after they have completed their training, we also discuss ways of improving the training method itself. For example, we have received feedback on how to improve the entry stage. There was a desire for more supervision, especially in the beginning phase. As a result, although the currently revised integration plan in the initial phase was assessed as positive, potential for initial demanding tasks is not yet being well utilized from the trainees' point of view. In response to this feedback, we have established placement interviews in the initial phase in which the previous experiences, interests and knowledge of the new trainees are coordinated and discussed. In a first step, the interviews were conducted as group discussions in a group of the new trainees with two trainers. The objective of the placement interviews is a faster and more effective engagement in matching projects and a better motivation and satisfaction of the trainees. In addition to the placement interviews and the resulting further steps, a list of topics for training, guidance and familiarization of the new trainees was developed and implemented within the group of trainees from higher vocational training years. These topics are handled by the trainees like individual small projects and, as an overall view, represent a kind of training programme for the new trainees' entry stage.

Reduce training & continued employment
There is an option to shorten the 3 years of vocational training included in the curriculum. Shortening is generally possible at the beginning or end of the training (shortening by 6 or 12 months). According to initial experience, we consider a shortening at the end of the training to be sensible if the trainee was previously able to achieve good to very good results both at vocational school and in the workplace. This necessary information is usually only available after a certain period of training and the decision of the training company to support a shortened training period can be based on an assessment of the apprentice's performance.
The current situation regarding the corona pandemic has led to a rapid increase in digitisation in all areas. However, there is now often a lack of IT specialists, not only in the IT sector itself. That's why we considered it important not only to train IT specialists in a regular form, but also to employ interns to retrain them. In order to serve our own job advertisements, we offered our fully trained trainees directly suitable positions, be it in the administration of learning management systems, the development of applications based on the web framework Django or as a position in first level support to accompany studies after the training.

Examples of projects
In cooperation with the trainees, we developed interesting projects from different areas. These included the development of web platforms, for example for the self-administration of user licences for the conference platform Webex, or the programming of web applications on various e-mail topics (e.g., spam report) or the improvement of the administration of a PC training room. Furthermore, we operate services at the ZIM that are set up and managed by trainees, for example our own instance, the versioning solution Gitlab, or the HHU's Rocket.Chat server. Trainees were responsible for the comparison of different chat programmes, the selection of the most suitable service, installation, administration and maintenance. They assume responsibility for the service, including backup and documentation, and deal with compliance issues such as data protection and personnel participation. As one of the final projects, a one-button recording studio based on the OBS Studio software was developed as part of a conversion to a video studio, in which university scientists can record lectures independently, but also practice presentations.
Nationwide exchanges have also enabled our trainees to gain experience. For example, one trainee attended the meeting of the Web Working Group within the ZKI Association and was able to contribute new ideas to the university's own App. Another trainee presented a lecture on "Network monitoring via SSH and ELK" at a congress of the Chaos Computer Club e.V. (CCC) [4]. In addition, the trainees have also been able to develop their skills internally at the university; two game jam events have already been held on weekends, where a complete computer game was developed together by the trainees from the very beginning. The results of these game jams were presented in the subsequent Jour-Fixe.
These projects are not only training projects but also belong to the everyday tasks and innovations in a computer centre. In this way, the IT specialist training has made it possible to provide good support for colleagues in IT tasks in the computer centre, creating scope for joint innovations. Security concepts were created by trainees, the documentation of network connections was considerably improved and many systems and components were tested and/or assembled. In addition, an application for improved performance measurement of InfiniBand network cards in the area of highperformance computing was developed, which now provides complete performance data for the entire system.
Within the exchange via the Training Working Group of the ZKI Association it turns out that many universities in Germany have to deal with the same topics. Therefore, more complex training topics can be coordinated and more easily mastered through this cooperation. Additionally, a trainee exchange between university computer centres can also be realised in this network and would be a possibility to differentiate one's own training.

CONCLUSIONS
The growth in demand for IT specialists is increasingly leading to enquiries from trainees who are currently undergoing retraining for IT specialist occupations. Once a training company for IT specialists has been established, there are simple options for retraining such persons as well as regular trainees in the training company. However, it is important to select qualified interns for current projects and existing conditions. Six people from different departments of the ZIM are involved in the training, each with very different responsibilities for IT services. This diversity allows a very balanced and broad educational spectrum to be represented in the training. The trainees are already a great support during their time in the company and the investment in this training leads to positive learning outcomes due to the practical application.
It is helpful to build on existing knowledge when fundamentally rebuilding a training company. The exchange with similar institutions is equally important and helps to reflect on individual steps within a topic-specific community. After initial experiences with finished trainees, the entire training and in particular the final examination can be reflected in a feedback discussion, and the training methods can be directly revised in this direction.
Shortening the period of training towards the end of the apprenticeship makes it possible to get an idea of the trainee's performance and, in the case of excellent performance, to offer a quicker entry into working life after the apprenticeship. Additionally, during the job interviews, we pay attention to the most independent personalities possible, who are able to work on topics well and fit in well with the university way of working. We also offer our trainees the opportunity to attend basic lectures on computer science at our university.
The regulation on vocational training for IT specialists regulates how the training is structured in detail. Due to the reorganisation of the IT professions, which emerged as a result of changes in the areas of networking, Internet of things and the digitisation of all sectors of the economy, the training regulation was urgently updated after 23 years. Two new fields of study were thus added: IT specialist in the field of "data and process analysis" and IT specialist in the field of "digital networking". IT specialists in data and process analysis develop IT solutions for digital production and business processes increasingly driven by data, based on the availability, quality and quantity of data. In the next training year, we will take advantage of this fact and expand the number of trainees and the training method by looking for trainees for the new field of data and process analysis in addition to the fields of application development and system integration. After all, the areas of "Ensuring data quality", "Analysing work and business processes" and "Optimising digital business models" are also of interest to IT at universities.