The distinction between 'training' and 'education' is beginning to reports. blur. The traditional route a lot of IT staff have followed in the past - receiving a general education for an IT degree and then specialising via training providers - is changing.

Universities are starting to integrate manufacturer certification courses directly into their IT degrees. While this may address the rift that has developed between academia and industry, of students graduating without the right skills, it threatens to undermine universities' independence.

The University of Kent is integrating Java Technology Programmer and Technology Developer certification into its Computer Science degree courses.

This is part of Sun's worldwide Authorised Academic Java Campus (AAJC), whereby universities incorporate Sun's software and courseware into their curriculum.

Loss of independence?

The University's professor of information management, Les Johnson, said he had considered the possibility that the move may jeopardise the department's independence in some people's eyes

"That is a concern of any university and we seriously discussed it, of course. Java is an important technology. It's really not just a programming language, and because it's a new technology, it's incidental from an academic point of view that it's associated with one manufacturer."

Kim Jones, Sun's vice-president of academic research computing, also disagreed that the deal would damage the university's status. "I don't see that happening. I think people still see universities as a place they go to become educated and Java just happens to be part of the curriculum," he explained.

Andrew Thomas, managing director of recruitment consultants Haymarket Consulting, thinks there is a risk of university degrees becoming glorified manufacturers' training courses - although he adds it may not be a bad thing. "There is no harm in that," he said. "You will acquire skills that benefit you in the real world. When I was at university I learnt about Pascal and programming in Forth, which was a complete waste of time."

Microsoft introduced a similar programme last year called the Graduate Academic Skills Programme (GRASP). Currently being tried out at Edinburgh's Napier University, the University of Wolverhampton and Brighton University, 60 per cent of the Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) qualification is incorporated into Computing and Computer Engineering courses.

Mark East, Microsoft's education group manager, believes training companies can never replace universities but students should be prepared for the real world. "Universities provide the depth and breadth but at the same time they need to prepare for life outside."

While closer links between IT companies and universities may affect universities' independent standing, it goes some way to addressing recent criticisms from the industry that academia is failing to produce the right kind of IT graduates.

An investigation in mid-September by the Government's skills taskforce, under the chairmanship of Chris Humphries, director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, found that graduates lacked essential employability and key skills. A survey, conducted earlier this year, reported that 15 per cent of all employers thought there was a significant gap between the skills employees now have and those required for business.

Haymarket's Thomas disagreed with the findings of the skills taskforce.

"Universities are turning out the right type of IT graduates, as long as they have studied just IT," he maintained. "If they're from specific IT courses then yes. But not when they mix IT with business and finance, then students lack the in-depth knowledge needed to succeed."

Service to industry

Johnson also disagreed with the view that universities are not serving industry properly: "I can see historically it might have been true, but over the past 10 or 15 years the university world has changed and we have to be responsive to the world at large. As a general move in universities, we are starting to accommodate more professional skills," he added.

Johnson also said that any university has to balance giving students a sound grounding in core systems on the one hand, with addressing the needs of the market on the other. "We are constantly balancing whether something is academically sound and whether it's sexy. Our students will leave with a sense of what computing is going to be, not just what it is."

Universities have got to tread a fine line to ensure that they don't deliver students with only niche abilities. Students and industry need a broad range and depth of skills to draw on and not all of them may be immediately relevant. Industry needs to bear in mind that university is about producing educated free thinkers, not just a vocationally trained workforce.

WITH HONOURS: IT training by degrees

The integration of manufacturers' courses into universities will not only benefit students, but established IT professionals as well according to Les Johnson, the University of Kent's professor of information management.

The University is looking to develop courses over the next year that will allow IT professionals to use manufacturer training and industry experience to get a head start on an IT Masters or Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree.

"What we can do is, say if you've done these sorts of training courses, Sun courses, and a unit on management with our business school, then it may well be we can put those together with a portfolio that shows what you've done in industry. That gives you exemption from this Masters programme of x per cent."

"We are looking at the MBA structure as a possible model which has certificates, diplomas and MBA. That is a good model for professional education. Certificates for those people who haven't gone to university who want an entry qualification.

A certificate qualifies you to enter a diploma that is roughly undergraduate level and when you've got a diploma to a certain standard you can move to an MBA."