Sacramento, CA, USA: February 17, 2011) – The Linux Professional Institute (LPI), the world’s premier Linux certification organization (http://www.lpi.org), announced promotional exam labs for their Linux Professional Institute Certification (LPIC) with the Free and Open Source Software Foundation for Africa (FOSSFA: http://www.fossfa.net/) at the Youth Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Technopreneurship Centre, Johannesburg, South Africa on March 5, 2011 at 10 a.m. This exam lab is part of a larger “train-the-trainers” program, ict@innovation,jointly sponsored by FOSSFA and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ: http://www.giz.de) and is undertaken with the cooperation of LPI-South Africa.
All LPIC exams will be available (LPI-101, 102, 201, 202, 301, 302, 303 and 304) by registration and payment in advance (Paypal or credit card) at events@lpi.org. All exams are available at an advance promotional rate of US $95 each except for the LPI-301 exam (LPIC-3 certification). For details on payment on site in Rand (ZAR) and pricing of the LPI-301 exam please contact operations@south-africa.lpi.org
Each exam takes approximately 90 minutes to complete. Candidates must bring their LPI ID and a government issued photo identification to the exam lab. To participate in the exam labs you must obtain an LPI ID at LPI’s registration area: http://www.lpi.org/eng/certification/register_now
“We fully support FOSSFA efforts to promote the growth of Linux professionals throughout Africa. Their program is especially valuable as it provides both LPI and FOSS training and, as well, skills development in entrepreneurship. This will ensure that there are viable IT service providers who can recommend affordable and secure solutions in Linux and Open Source Software to their prospective clients,” said Jim Lacey, president and CEO of the Linux Professional Institute.
¨In this second LPI Train-the-Trainer workshop, we hope to build on the momentum that we started in Nairobi during the first workshop. In the first workshop, 12 participants were certified in LPIC-1. With this training and certification, these participants are now ready to deliver LPI training in their own institutions as a business initiative. With this we will build a network of trainers across Africa that will contribute to the wider deployment of Open Source solutions, which will in turn make a positive contribution to economic development in Africa, said Evans Ikua, FOSS Certification Manager, ict@innovation.
The joint FOSSFA/GIZ Linux training project is part of the ict@innovation program which aims at building capacities for African small and medium ICT enterprises to do business with Free and Open Source Software. The ict@innovation program is also funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA).
The program offers online training modules for LPIC-1 certification and is available at
http://www.ict-innovation.fossfa.net/e-learning/index.php?category=LC
FOSSFA is also developing the first “made in Africa” training manual for LPIC-1 which will be released under a Creative Commons license. For further information on this LPIC-1 training manual initiative please see: http://www.ict-innovation.fossfa.net/blog/%5Buser-raw%5D/ictnnovation-lpic-1-training-guide-coming-soon
The Linux Professional Institute is globally supported by the IT industry, enterprise customers, community professionals, government entities and the educational community. LPI’s certification program is supported by an affiliate network spanning five continents and is distributed worldwide in multiple languages in more than 7,000 testing locations. Since 1999, LPI has delivered over 270,000 exams and 90,000 LPIC certifications around the world.
About the Linux Professional Institute:
The Linux Professional Institute promotes and certifies essential skills on Linux and Open Source technologies through the global delivery of comprehensive, top-quality, vendor-independent exams. Established as an international non-profit organization in September 1999 by the Linux community, the Linux Professional Institute continues to demonstrate recognized global leadership in the certification of Linux professionals. LPI advances the Linux and Open Source movement through strategic partners, sponsorships, innovative programs and community development activities. LPI’s major financial sponsors are Platinum Sponsors IBM, Linux Journal, Linux Magazine, Novell, SGI, and TurboLinux as well as Gold Sponsors, HP and IDG.
About ict@innovation:
The ict@innovation programme focuses on Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) as a key technology to drive innovation, add local value and create sustainable and affordable ICT-solutions. ict@innovation is a partnership of the Free Software and Open Source Foundation for Africa (FOSSFA:http://www.fossfa.net/) and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ: http://www.giz.de) which aims to enhance regional networking and to strengthen consulting capacities of regional and national ICT associations and training institutions as well as of other change agents. Funding partners are the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development
(BMZ:http://www.bmz.de/en/index.html) and the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA: http://www.osisa.org/).
