A Zend PHP academy has been established at the Northern Technology Institute (nti), based at Leeds Metropolitan University’s Old Broadcasting House facility, offering courses covering three levels of ability for open source software (OSS).

PHP is used by more than 5 million developers and it drives more than 20 million websites worldwide. It is the most popular OSS programming language for building modern websites which deliver dynamic content, execute ecommerce transactions and build communities to help businesses connect with their customers and improve competitiveness.

Zend is the world’s leading provider of PHP technologies, supporting services, training and certification. Zend's founders Andi Gutmans and
Zeev Suraski are key contributors to PHP and other OSS projects like Eclipse PDT, a PHP editor, and Zend Framework, the leading PHP application framework.

Under the agreement between NTI and Zend, the Zend PHP Academy will deliver PHP courses that have been developed by Zend, including PHPI: Foundations, PHPII: Higher Structures and PHP 5 Certification Training.

The courses can be taken individually or as set, and completion of all courses prepares students for a certification examination to become a Zend Certified Engineer (ZCE). There are more than 3,000 ZCEs worldwide, making the program the number one certification for PHP professionals.

Head of nti, Linda Broughton, said: “PHP is the language behind more than one third of all websites. It is easy to learn for beginning programmers, but it is also powerful enough to drive some of the biggest websites in the world.

“Linking up with Zend allows us to deliver high quality specialist training for the creative and technology driven businesses, whatever their size.”

She added: “We are one of only a few providers of Zend PHP accredited training partners in the UK, so this is a really exciting addition to nti’s offering.

“It is our goal to provide students and graduates skills that are in high demand in the UK, and to assure employers and customers that trainees who complete courses at nti have the highest level of PHP skills. Our accreditation by Zend provides employers and customers with this quality assurance.

“We are aiming to become the number one place in the UK for specialist and accredited training for the digital sector, and with Leeds having such a central location within Britain and superb transport links we believe this is very achievable.

“Leeds is regarded as one of best places in the country for doing business, as well as being the fastest growing city in the UK and it is also home to the largest financial centre outside of London.
Importantly for us though, is the vast amount of people employed within the IT and digital industries; it is estimated that there are in excess of 250 companies operating across West Yorkshire employing around 14,500
people, with an estimated 33 per cent of internet traffic going through Leeds.”

The nti website is at www.ntileeds.co.uk. Linda Broughton can be contacted on 0845 122 1555 or email info@ntileeds.co.uk

Happy Publishing!

Pia Weathers - database systems engineer