On January 18, 2017, fourteen IUPUI students embarked on sixteen weeks of IT training at Kinney Group Inc., located in the heart of a vibrant neighborhood on the Near Westside of Indianapolis.
Through this university-business partnership, Kinney Group is providing training in Splunk®, the market-leading platform that powers Operational Intelligence. The training will fill a need identified by the Kinney Group for tech professionals skilled in use, setup, education and customer training.
Kinney Group is providing the training to upper level students at the Purdue School of Engineering and Technology at IUPUI and the School of Informatics and Computing at IUPUI. Some who successfully complete the course will have hiring opportunities with Kinney Group.
Teresa Bennett from the IUPUI Office of Community Engagement said, “IUPUI welcomed the opportunity to work with Kinney Group on this program to help our students succeed, and the Kinney Group to identify a talented workforce that they need as they grow.”
“We are an organization that focuses on the growth of technology in Indiana, specifically in this area,” said Joe Cudby, vice president of engineering at Kinney Group, “The opportunity to work with a prominent local institution, and to be able to offer a class like this… ends up benefitting everybody.”
The Splunk® training, held in Kinney Group’s modern lecture style classroom, is designed to teach the fundamentals of the Splunk® platform at both the Power User and Administrator levels. The training offers students valuable insight into what it takes to make companies productive, profitable, competitive and secure.
“Splunk® as a platform is an incredible way to bring in all kinds of random types of data. The big challenge is how to get the little nuggets of data out that you want. It is such a powerful platform that training users in the industry how to go get the nuggets out is critical” said Cudby. “Anytime you get exposed to a tool like this it’s great background information to have through your career.”
The course instructor, Michael Simko, has been teaching this class since 2013. “This class gives the students a chance to see the real world and meet people who are already successful in the industry,” Simko said. “It gives them a heads up to see if this is what they really want to do as a job and go right out into it.”
Students learn the intro level courses online, in order to be ready to step into the classroom. After the online courses, students move into the classroom for a concentrated, deeper dive into the Splunk® curriculum. “All of the students seem pretty interested and engaged, and there’s a lot of good conversation,” Cudby said.
Purdue School of Engineering and Technology at IUPUI senior, Emily Voorhis, has been working in the IT field professionally for six years. She said, “IUPUI has helped me get to this point. I think that for someone with a data management focus like me, learning a big data tool like Splunk® is going to be exceptionally helpful for my job prospects in the future.”
School of Informatics and Computing at IUPUI student, Cody Chase adds, “This training gives me an advantage in the job market and provides actual proof of my skills being used. I have already been on interviews because of my knowledge.”
“Splunk® is a key resource for leaders to ensure a successful transition by making their data accessible, usable, and valuable to everyone,” Cudby said, “There are a lot of big companies in Indiana that use this type of technology. If we can help keep some of the students in the area, it benefits us long term.”
IUPUI will again offer the Splunk® course with Kinney Group in fall 2017.
“IUPUI welcomes opportunities to talk with business leaders,” said Bennett. “The university can work directly with business leaders to develop creative and innovative ways to access the talent needed to make their companies successful.”
For more information about this partnership or interested in a business partnership, contact Teresa Bennett at tkbennet@iupui.edu.
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