The first students from Jyväskylä University of Applied Sciences to complete courses through Red Hat Academy

Jyväskylä University of Applied Sciences (JAMK) offers its 8,500 students high-quality education, which is built to meet the needs of the labor market. 

It is beneficial for both students and the job market in the region that student qualifications match the job requirements. JAMK has good relations with local companies and organizations, and 86% of JAMK computer science students are employed soon after studies. JAMK faculty and staff consider it important to listen with an attentive ear to the requirements set for experts in the future. Solutions based on open source are on the rise. 

In Jyväskylä there are many prominent companies offering employment in the ICT sector, Kela which provides national welfare services – anything from parenthood support to study benefits to pensions -- being one of the largest. Many software and consulting houses have also established new offices in Jyväskylä in recent years. With employment opportunities on the rise, seeking talent specific to Red Hat technologies is of great interest to many companies in the area.

How to meet the employer's needs? 

“Feasible ideas often arise from a need,” says Teemu Pölkki, JAMK lecturer. In this case, Kela, which uses Red Hat technologies, had a need for an increasing number of Red Hat OpenShift technology experts. Could Kela get Red Hat OpenShift professionals from JAMK? Kela gave a tip about the Red Hat Academy program to JAMK. 

According to Teemu Pölkki from JAMK, it was a simple process to join the Red Hat Academy program. The program’s support resources and clear onboarding instructions made starting the program very easy. It was also clear what was expected of JAMK and what the university would get when they joined the program.

The intention is to foster cooperation with businesses in the future, and to form similar study programs to align with the needs of partner companies. The aim is to involve five to ten business and engineering students per year in similar programs.

The first students have completed course materials available through the Red Hat Academy program

Two JAMK computer science students, Sasu Salonen and Mika Tonteri, were selected based on their motivation to complete learning offered through the Red Hat Academy program. A study module was tailored for them. In addition, the program included an internship with Kela and a possibility to do a dissertation for them.  

Together, Tonteri and Salonen plan to create an application that works on REST interfaces on Red Hat OpenShift.

In the project, Salonen is responsible for the front-end and Tonteri for the back-end. The application will be fully deployed on the Red Hat OpenShift platform. The goal is that both Salonen and Tonteri will continue working with Kela after their studies at Jyväskylä University of Applied Sciences.

When asked what they thought about their studies, a few interesting topics and technical challenges emerged. As his studies on Red Hat and open source software progressed, Salonen became particularly interested in Java EE. Tonteri completed the system administration track in his studies and found the DevOps skills to be the most useful for the future. Both students had challenges with some virtual environments, but when they dove deeper into the topic, they learned how to solve them.

For more about Red Hat Academy, visit the Red Hat Academy page