BANGALORE: Onward Novell Software Pvt Ltd, a joint venture company between Novell Inc and Onward Technologies, announced it's tie up with IIHT, a leading IT training organization, to offer its training courses at 50 different centers across India.

As per the agreement signed IIHT would be offering all Novell authorized courses including Certified Novell Engineer (CNE), Certified Novell Administrator (CNA), SUSE Certified Linux Professional (SCLP) and Certified Linux Engineer (CLE) to IT professionals and aspirants.

"As networks become central to every computing endeavor, the IT certification of network professionals becomes more important than ever. Today, the certification programs first develop by Novell have evolved into indispensable credentials leading to lucrative careers for professionals. The goal of our Novell Education Business Unit is to build an infrastructure of Novell Qualified professionals who have the skills to effectively support the organizations they serve," said Munesh Jalota, Country Manager, Indian Subcontinent, Onward Novell Software Ltd.

"With our recent acquisition of SUSE in January 2004, we are ideally placed to create the required infrastructure of qualified Linux trained professionals, which will further help in growing the Linux market in India," added Jalota. Last month, Onward Novell launched two Linux course offerings i.e. Novell Certified Linux Engineer (NCLE) and SUSE Linux Certified Professional (SCLP) in the Indian market. These courses are aimed at imparting skills on SUSE offerings and deploying networking services on a Linux platform.

"Our association with Novell will help us in playing a significant role in meeting this demand," said Davuluri. P., Sr. VP, Professional Services, IIHT. "Today most of the Indian organizations have already deployed Linux or have plans to deploy in near future. Novell's acquisition of SUSE provides us an additional opportunity for creating trained Linux professionals in the country," he added.