Tackling question 2, IMHO; PHP, MySQL and Linux. Those 3 skills will enable a student start earning pocket change almost immediately, since there seems to be so much work around, including self employment.

However, there is a caveat... teaching a noobie PHP does not give them enough grounding in the principles of programming to make them a great developer (which equals lots more money), unless the said noobie has loads of self motivation to teach themselves.

The solution to this seems to be, to teach them a sufficiently low level and strict language which will force them to learn and conform to the foundations of programming, such as Java. However, before one can start earning pocket change in Java, they need to be much more better than a noobie, which then requires the said noobie to have even more bucket loads of self motivation, and the cycle continues.

That said, if I were in your shoes, I would go for PHP, MySQL and Linux.

Btw, when this training commences, I would be willing to teach some PHP or MySQL to the students, pro-bono, on weekends, my motivation being the quality of some of the "expert" PHP developers around is mediocre at best. 


On Fri, Oct 12, 2012 at 7:13 PM, Athar Ahmad Bhatti <atharab@gmail.com> wrote:
Dear friends,

I have been tasked to look at the feasibility of setting up an IT training center by a charity to help students become  employable. Any advice on the location, courses et al would be appreciated. My key queries are:

1. What is the best location to start with, that has a desperate need and cost effective to manage, get trainers, facilities and other resources
2. What courses would enable students to be marketable and start immediately

This would be an initial pilot and would lead to other centers once this is  successful.

Thank you

Best regards

Athar


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Regards,
Peter Karunyu
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