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Over 2,500 Students at 22 U.S. Schools Participating in Micro Focus ACTION Program

Micro Focus introducing real-world IT demands to U.S. campuses, including New York City University of Technology

Newbury, England and Rockville, Maryland - October 23, 2007

Micro Focus ®, a leader in enterprise application management and modernization solutions, today announced it has successfully partnered with 22 colleges and universities in the United States as a part of its Micro Focus Academic ConnecTIONS (ACTION) Program initiative. While the fear of an impending skills shortage is slowly gripping the industry that still relies heavily on existing enterprise IT systems, ACTION is designed to minimize the legacy skills shortage among IT professionals. Through the ACTION Program, Micro Focus is providing students around the world with the latest technology and tools for enterprise application development, such as access to free software, support, books and courseware and research engagements.

In a recent independent survey of 650 enterprise respondents, Micro Focus found that more than three-quarters of CIOs indicated that they expect to maintain key IT department focus on recruiting COBOL programmers over the next five years. This study also revealed, 73 percent were already finding it hard to find and hire trained COBOL professionals.

Just launched in May 2007, the Micro Focus ACTION Program helps to bridge the gap between the IT skills and capabilities of today’s computer science graduates and enterprises’ need for IT specialists that understand management and modernization of enterprise applications. This widening gap has resulted in concerns regarding an impending skills shortage among IT departments nation-wide.

To help fill that void, the Micro Focus ACTION Program has rolled out at 22 U.S. campuses, including New York City College of Technology, Kansas State University, University of Wisconsin-Platteville, Central Carolina Technical College and Colorado Tech University. The program has been deployed globally by Micro Focus, with participating universities in 5 countries across the U.S., Europe and Asia.

Micro Focus currently has granted over 3,500 licenses and support covering more than 2,500 students every year in North America to ensure Enterprise Application Modernization, core language skills and architectures including SOA are available – supporting students to connect directly with the needs of the industry. For further information, please visit http://www.microfocus.com/academic.

Executive quote

“We are excited about the momentum of the ACTION program in the U.S.,” said Kevin Moultrup, executive vice president, North American operations at Micro Focus. “The expansion into current academic programs is not only a critical component to the continued success of future IT professionals, but also to our customers and partners who need the best and the brightest in enterprise IT knowledge.”

Customer quote

“As educators we must not only expose our students to the theoretical and ‘hot’ programming languages, but we must also provide the knowledge of systems and languages that are more prevalent in the work environment,” said Professor Harrison Simmons, Computer science lecturer and Module coordinator, from New York City College of Technology. “By incorporating joint initiatives, such as ACTION into the curriculum, we provide our students better ways to equip themselves for today’s large-system, enterprise computing jobs.”

About the company

About Micro Focus
Micro Focus, a member of the FTSE 250, provides innovative software that allows companies to dramatically improve the business value of their enterprise applications. Micro Focus Enterprise Application Modernization and Management software enables customers’ business applications to respond rapidly to market changes and embrace modern architectures with reduced cost and risk. For additional information please visit www.microfocus.com

Contact details

Dan Gaffney

LEWIS PR

617-226-8844

microfocus@lewispr.com

Technorati tags: COBOL | application development | legacy systems | IT talent gap |

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