NETg, a leading e-Learning company, today announced that it will work with NCR Dundee on a new project to take software developers, who design products and applications for ATMs, through Microsoft certification training.

NETg and NCR have worked closely together on the project resulting in NCR Dundee also becoming an examination centre for Microsoft certification programmes.

The programme was launched on 12th July with a workshop event to help familiarise developers with the courses, and will start with an initial pilot phase involving 24 volunteers, who have all been given NETg CDs of the courses.

The volunteers will be able to learn both in allocated time at work – 4 hours a week - and in their own time. After the test phase there are plans to widen the reach to all 150 software developers based at NCR's Dundee site and to utilise learning portals for online learning.

The project is being implemented as the Windows NT operating system is being standardised across the banking sector in ATMs, replacing IBM's OS/2 system. Currently 97% of all ATM applications use the OS/2 platform, which will all change to Windows NT. This change has created a training need for software developers at NCR, who are the global number one in the ATM sector for the last 13 years -more transactions are conducted on NCR ATMs than any other provider.

Software developers at Dundee are tasked with creating new and more sophisticated applications and interfaces for the machines. It is essential that each developer is kept up to date with the latest platform releases. The new training programme will cover NT 4.0 and 5.0.

"Training and developing all our software people to internationally recognised standards and putting them through certification is very important to us, as it ensures high skill levels and shows our customers that we are committed to adding value to their business," said Mike Cusack, Director, Global Organisational Development for NCR Self Service. "To put each of our developers through MCSE and MCSD using traditional training methods would cost us in the region of £1million, at about £6,000 per person. We therefore turned to NETg with a challenging problem. In partnership, we have been able to develop a flexible high quality and business focused learning solution for just £260 per person. We have even become a testing centre so we can quickly and cost effectively put engineers through exams ourselves. All staff are really motivated to get learning and we expect some impressive business results."

The programme is focusing on the core developer group based at NCR Dundee, but will be rolled out to other sites around the world and to all job titles outside the software community. The company has planned to add other certification programmes e.g. Cisco. All NCR's general people are benefiting from certification programmes such as ECDL (European Computer Driving Licence) and MOUS (Microsoft Office User Specialist).