S3C is a consortium of seven Further Education colleges in Scotland (Forth Valley, North East Scotland, Dundee and Angus, New College Lanarkshire, Fife, City of Glasgow, Glasgow Kelvin) which has joined forces with Future Cert (representing LPI in the UK and Ireland) to offer Linux Certification to learners.
Forth Valley College has been instrumental in developing three units for the Scottish Qualifications Authority which combine academic study and the opportunity to achieve vendor Certification. The SQA unit H18C 35 Open Source Operating Systems: Introduction to Command Line Administration covers the content of LPIC-1 101. The Open Source Operating Systems: Advanced Server Administration H18D 35 Unit covers the objectives of the LPIC-2 (Linux Professional Institute Certificate 2) exam 201. The objectives of the LPIC-2 exam 202 map to the Unit Open Source Operating Systems: Advanced Network Services Administration H18F 35.
For consortium lead Vivien Gallacher, Curriculum Manager at Forth Valley College, the priority of the partnership is to increase the employability of learners. Vendor qualifications are highly valued by local employers because their content is up-to-date and because Certification provides validated evidence of Linux knowledge and skills.
It’s important to the consortium colleges that LPI training and Certification are Open Source. This keeps costs low and enables learners to install free software on their home computers and devices.
For S3C, choosing a Linux Certification partner was easy: “We believe Linux Certification is best offered by a Linux focused organisation and that organisation is Future Cert. We’ve already recommended them to other FE colleges in Scotland,” says Vivien Gallacher.