Anthony Putorek, a representative of the Microsoft Global Workforce Development team, and the Microsoft datacenter management staff in Boydton, Virginia, organized several donations of supplies and equipment to the IT Academy at the Southern Virginia Higher Education Center (ITA@SVHEC) over the past six months.
“Microsoft is proud to support SVHEC as it continues to meet the growing demand for IT training and certification,” Putorek said. “The quality of its graduates is a testament to the dedication of SVHEC and its instructors.”
In July the ITA received a new $24,500 network tester through its partnership with Microsoft’s Datacenter Academy program. Training on the use of the tester was provided for ITA instructors. This tester is the same model used by datacenter technicians at the Microsoft datacenter in Boydton, giving students a leg up on using equipment they may encounter in the field.
This generous gift was followed in August by the donation of various new supplies and materials being surplussed by Microsoft. In January, 15 Bluetooth scanners were delivered to the ITA. The scanners had been used by datacenter technicians to capture equipment and component serial and asset numbers for tracking. Use of these scanners will be incorporated into hands-on labs for the students.
Microsoft’s most recent donation consisted of 25 Fellowes 55-piece computer toolkits, 27 LED flashlights and nine 12-packs of multi-purpose gloves.
“We are so appreciative of Microsoft’s continuing support of our program,” said Kelly Shotwell, IT Academy director. “Every item they have given will go into enhancing the training environment and the hands-on experience we provide our students. The individual toolkits and gloves will be particularly helpful as we try to keep everyone safe during the pandemic,” she said.
For more information about the SVHEC’s IT Academy visit svhec.org/ita.