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Entrepreneur vs. Career
Within the one-year program, students have the opportunity to customize their learning experience depending on whether they may be focused on forming their own IT consulting business, or whether they would rather pursue a job in the IT industry, or as an IT worker in a solid company offering great opportunities. The curriculum remains the same, but the projects that are chosen, and the apprenticeship choices may be driven by this fundamental perspective.
For instance, entrereneurial-focused students will be given an opportunity to learn basics of starting and running a successful consulting business, while career-based students may choose to focus on certifications, and specific vendor-based training with an eye toward what the job market is currently demanding.
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Comprehensive 1-year Program
Our 1-year program is designed to educate the highly-motivated individual to point at which they are ready to work as a professional in the field commanding high hourly consulting rates or salaries. In order to achieve this in just one year, the 1-year comprehensive program is broken down into four sections, each lasting about 12 weeks:
 Networking
Fundamental to all of IT nowadays is the network. Whether the graduate will work as a network engineer, a systems administrator, a security professional or a developer, they will have to understand the networking protocols at a fundamental and deep level. But while it is possible to spend two years talking only about networking technologies, The Open Source Academy will deliver the knowledge that is necessary and practical, not simply theory. Since our classes are taught by working network engineers, only the knowledge that truly matters is transferred to the student.
 Systems Administration
Systems Administration refers to those skills necessary to install and maintain server hardware and operating systems, as well as the services those machines provide the enterprise. Mail, DNS, DHCP, Web, hosted Applications, as well as File and Print sharing services are just a few examples of the kinds of skills that are in great demand, and which are taught at The Open Source Academy. Each student is assigned their own server during the first week of class. The student has "root" access to the server, which means that they have complete control over every aspect of the system. It's a powerful responsibility, but which is abolsutely necessary for the full development of the student. Students will become the system administratosr of these "production" machines, and will have the opportunity to retain control of the servers after graduation.
 Application Development
Applications have provided business with phenomenal levels of efficency, to the point at which nowadays most businesses cannot hope to compete without an efficient suite of business applications to handle amost every aspect of operations. The new revolution in business application development is tied to the Internet -- that is, hosted applications. The Open Source Academy delivers the knowledge necessary for students to build and host mission-critical applications, such as Inventory Tracking, Operations Management, Financial and other powerful web-based, database-driven applications. Cutting edge frameworks for rapid application development are covered -- Ruby on Rails is but one example.
 Hosting and the Data Center
Building on the previous modules, the final section covers hosting services, as well as the data center environment. For students on the Entrepreneurial track, the knowledge necessary to host services and applications to sell to businesses on a monthly recurring basis is covered. For career-based students, leveraging the services of a hosted environment, as well as data center design and management is discussed, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing the data center operation.
Cost of this one-year program is $7,900. Most students will be able to finance all or part of this cost through the school. Since students have an opportunity to work early on in the program, tution may be offset by work before graduation.
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Choices
At The Open Source Academy, we have a single 1-year program for most students. Each student is then interviewed to determine their focus -- "Entrepreneurial" or "Career-Based."
Entrepreneurial students have a strong interest in forming their own companies, and working independently to deliver high-level IT services to businesses. These services can range from network support, systems administration, service hosting, or application development.
Career-Based students prefer to focus and hone their skills to become expert IT professionals that will be actively sought out for employment by the best companies to work for. Jobs range from desktop and network support, to system administration, network engineering, and application development.
Apprenticeship is an important part o The Open Source Academy. For students whose focus is entrepreneurial, this means starting their own company under the direction of their mentor. For career-based students it means not just the best professional training, but a year's worth of experience on a resume upon graduation.
Apprenticeship, Hands-On
Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of obtaining a 4-year academic degree in Information Technology, is the realization upon graduation that, without hands-on experience, well-paying jobs are few and far between. The usual result is that two or more years are spent learning the ropes in a given environment before the years of effort begin to pay off.
With the Apprenticeship program at The Open Source Academy, students graduate with a year of practical experience under their belts (and, as importantly, on their resume'.) Entrepreneurial students will work with their mentors to form the business, advertise, sell, and deliver their services. Career-based students will actually work in the field on jobs. These are paidd apprenticeship, and can help to offset tuition costs.
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