Pathbreaking portal aims to create careers in software testing
It took a random chat for Yadwinder Sharma to launch careers in the New Zealand IT market for a profile which is not even taught as a subject in NZ’s IT courses. After a brief discussion with the NZSE’s (New Zealand School of Education) Career Advisor last year, this Software Test Manager for Telecom New Zealand, created a revolutionary portal, which has become an interface between the IT Industry and NZ Education/Unemployed people. The portal aims at creating careers in Software Testing, a lucrative IT profile which has remained less prominent in the industry till date.
According to Sharma, Software Testers in the current market can start their career from 55-60k and can end up making 90-100 NZD per hour in a few years. “And it’s not that hard to become a Software Tester. The eligibility for a candidate is basic IT knowledge, good analytical skills, and good verbal and written communication skills,” Sharma informs.
Hence, after organising a successful webinar on software testing, conducted by Brian Osman -- an international speaker for software testing -- for NZSE students, Sharma created the portal www.getskills.co.nz.
“I have always believed that there is a big need of building a bridge between the industry and NZ Educational institutions and unemployed people. This is one of the best ways to build a knowledge sharing culture in NZ. Today anyone can create their account on this website and join paid and free courses under ‘Public Courses’ delivered by industry experts. Once the course is joined you can see classes for those courses in ‘My Classroom’.
You can attend these classes online sitting from your home computer, watch the recordings of the classes you have already attended and take online exams after each module to measure your learning progress,” Sharma tells us.
GetSkills started its first batch of International Software Testing exam course taught by Sharma on February 25, 2013 with a few students coming from different professional backgrounds. At the end of the course, some scored 95 percent, which according to Sharma, is close to the highest score that anyone could achieve in this exam.
“A few weeks later, most students started getting calls from companies that were hiring software testers. Currently, two of them have already got Software Testing jobs along with others undergoing the interviewing process,” he reveals, adding, “This whole exercise proved a point that with some basic skills anyone can be up skilled to become a Software Tester, which in turn can help NZ IT companies to keep their intellectual property in house without thinking about outsourcing this work. It also broke the myth that there are no jobs in the IT field in NZ.”
With the aim to spread this word among the unemployed people in NZ, Sharma got in touch with Work and Income NZ (WINZ), a Ministry of Social Development (MSD) department, which helps unemployed people to get jobs. “With the support of Mr Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi, I submitted a proposal to WINZ asking them to give GetSkills the access to all candidates who have registered themselves under the IT category. The proposal was to adopt these candidates, up skill them with the right IT certifications and tools and help them in getting jobs through our existing network. A leading NZ Test consulting firm called The Testing Consultancy is supporting Getskills in this initiative by providing highly experienced Testers/Test Managers as coaches and guest lecturers for the Getskills Testing courses,” Sharma informs.
This proposal was instantly accepted by the MSD, which is in process of recommending a business case for a trial with GetSkills. In this trial Industry experts from different companies will teach and up skill WINZ candidates. “Our final goal is to bring the unemployment numbers down in New Zealand and set an example that it’s just a bit of cooperation that is needed to solve the biggest problems of the world.
The first step towards this initiative is that job aspirants have to register themselves with WINZ so that we can all join in to help them score good jobs. This initiative is based on the ‘Pay it forward’ idea. Hence, one has to register with the intention of up skilling the rest of the unemployed people along the course. After all, we are all in the same boat,”
Sharma signs off.
It took a random chat for Yadwinder Sharma to launch careers in the New Zealand IT market for a profile which is not even taught as a subject in NZ’s IT courses. After a brief discussion with the NZSE’s (New Zealand School of Education) Career Advisor last year, this Software Test Manager for...
It took a random chat for Yadwinder Sharma to launch careers in the New Zealand IT market for a profile which is not even taught as a subject in NZ’s IT courses. After a brief discussion with the NZSE’s (New Zealand School of Education) Career Advisor last year, this Software Test Manager for Telecom New Zealand, created a revolutionary portal, which has become an interface between the IT Industry and NZ Education/Unemployed people. The portal aims at creating careers in Software Testing, a lucrative IT profile which has remained less prominent in the industry till date.
According to Sharma, Software Testers in the current market can start their career from 55-60k and can end up making 90-100 NZD per hour in a few years. “And it’s not that hard to become a Software Tester. The eligibility for a candidate is basic IT knowledge, good analytical skills, and good verbal and written communication skills,” Sharma informs.
Hence, after organising a successful webinar on software testing, conducted by Brian Osman -- an international speaker for software testing -- for NZSE students, Sharma created the portal www.getskills.co.nz.
“I have always believed that there is a big need of building a bridge between the industry and NZ Educational institutions and unemployed people. This is one of the best ways to build a knowledge sharing culture in NZ. Today anyone can create their account on this website and join paid and free courses under ‘Public Courses’ delivered by industry experts. Once the course is joined you can see classes for those courses in ‘My Classroom’.
You can attend these classes online sitting from your home computer, watch the recordings of the classes you have already attended and take online exams after each module to measure your learning progress,” Sharma tells us.
GetSkills started its first batch of International Software Testing exam course taught by Sharma on February 25, 2013 with a few students coming from different professional backgrounds. At the end of the course, some scored 95 percent, which according to Sharma, is close to the highest score that anyone could achieve in this exam.
“A few weeks later, most students started getting calls from companies that were hiring software testers. Currently, two of them have already got Software Testing jobs along with others undergoing the interviewing process,” he reveals, adding, “This whole exercise proved a point that with some basic skills anyone can be up skilled to become a Software Tester, which in turn can help NZ IT companies to keep their intellectual property in house without thinking about outsourcing this work. It also broke the myth that there are no jobs in the IT field in NZ.”
With the aim to spread this word among the unemployed people in NZ, Sharma got in touch with Work and Income NZ (WINZ), a Ministry of Social Development (MSD) department, which helps unemployed people to get jobs. “With the support of Mr Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi, I submitted a proposal to WINZ asking them to give GetSkills the access to all candidates who have registered themselves under the IT category. The proposal was to adopt these candidates, up skill them with the right IT certifications and tools and help them in getting jobs through our existing network. A leading NZ Test consulting firm called The Testing Consultancy is supporting Getskills in this initiative by providing highly experienced Testers/Test Managers as coaches and guest lecturers for the Getskills Testing courses,” Sharma informs.
This proposal was instantly accepted by the MSD, which is in process of recommending a business case for a trial with GetSkills. In this trial Industry experts from different companies will teach and up skill WINZ candidates. “Our final goal is to bring the unemployment numbers down in New Zealand and set an example that it’s just a bit of cooperation that is needed to solve the biggest problems of the world.
The first step towards this initiative is that job aspirants have to register themselves with WINZ so that we can all join in to help them score good jobs. This initiative is based on the ‘Pay it forward’ idea. Hence, one has to register with the intention of up skilling the rest of the unemployed people along the course. After all, we are all in the same boat,”
Sharma signs off.
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