Students Prepare To Be The Next Generation of Detroit IT Professionals (VIDEO)

By Edward Cardenas

DETROIT (CBS Detroit) - Students in the innovative Experience IT training program are in the final days of the eight-week program at Grand Circus in Detroit, and may soon be on their way to a new career.

The program, which was created through a collaboration of Detroit-area companies, brings a diverse mix of students together for an intensive training program for the next generation of IT professionals.

"It is a ground-breaking workforce development boot camp," said Derek Turner, project manager for Experience IT. "They are learning the skills that Detroit businesses are looking for the most."

The 42 students taking part in the program have attended class from 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. Monday through Friday for the past eight weeks and have been learning technologies including .Net, Java, SQL Server, MY SQL, and PHP. Additionally, the students learned skills including interpersonal communication, working in teams and job interviews.

"(Experience IT) helped me to rebuild my foundation in programming languages," said Tyrone Rogers, of Canton Township. "Not only am I learning all the knowledge tools in the classroom, but you also get to learn (about) different company."

Successful graduates will  have the opportunity for employment opportunities ranging from internships to full-time positions.

"The best part to me is seeing all the different employers come in and we can hear what they really do,"  said Chandra Floyd, of Detroit, who was looking to get into IT. "We get to ask them as many questions as we want, the good, the bad, the ugly. And they tell us what it is really like to be a developer, or to be a quality assurance tester."