RIM today announced its BlackBerry Academic Program, which offers BlackBerry-smartphone-related courses and curriculums to participating colleges and universities in the United States and Canada. The new courses will teach interested students BlackBerry development fundamentals, as well BlackBerry administration and support procedures and best practices. BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion (RIM) kicked off its second annual BlackBerry Developer Conference with a bang this morning, announcing its new BlackBerry Academic Program, which brings BlackBerry application development and administration courses to colleges and universities throughout North America, as well as a new alliance with Adobe Systems. The BlackBerry Academic Program now offers course content related to BlackBerry smartphone software development; BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) administration; and BlackBerry device support. RIM says it created the course curriculums along with a number of academic professionals, and the courses themselves have been in “pilot” or test-stages for longer than a year, with more than 500 students taking associated courses as part of the pilot. BlackBerry development courses will include training on BlackBerry smartphone features and functionality, user interface design, multimedia application development, mobile web app and Java app development, according to RIM. BES administration and support courses will cover all of the basics IT professionals need to know to effectively manage enterprise BlackBerry servers, RIM says. And the new support courses will prepare students for work in technical call centers or IT support environments where they’ll support BlackBerry deployments and users. The announcement is particularly relevant to CIOs and their IT teams, because it could drastically increase competition in the BES admin and developer spaces, since more college and university students will now be able to learn “official” BlackBerry support, admin and development skills in college, so they’re prepared to hit the ground running immediately upon graduation. The new courses aren’t the first BlackBerry-related classes taught at North American universities, but the BlackBerry Academic Program was created and is officially endorsed by RIM. The success of the BlackBerry Academic Program will, of course, ultimately depend on how many U.S. and Canadian universities decide to offer the courses to their students. No details on which universities and/or colleges participated in the pilot are available at this point, and it’s unclear which schools have expressed interest, if any. Additional information on the new BlackBerry Academic Program can be found on RIM’s website. ASFREE CIO BlackBerry NewsletterGet better use out of your BlackBerry and keep up-to-date on the latest developments. Sign-up » Related content opinion Generative AI in enterprises: LLM orchestration holds the key to success In the dynamic landscape of AI, LLMs represent a pivotal breakthrough. Unlike traditional AI, which demands frequent data updates, LLMs possess the ability to learn and adapt in real-time. This mirrors human learning and positions LLMs as essential f By Shail Khiyara Dec 06, 2023 10 mins Generative AI Artificial Intelligence brandpost Sponsored by Freshworks How gen AI is joining the holiday shopping season One year after the launch of ChatGPT, the retail industry is embracing generative AI to deliver a variety of benefits By Elliot Markowitz Dec 06, 2023 4 mins Generative AI brandpost Sponsored by NTT DATA Transform your technology and accelerate business outcomes with NTT DATA’s Technology Solutions By Miriam Murphy, Chief Executive Officer at NTT, Europe Dec 06, 2023 4 mins Digital Transformation brandpost Sponsored by SAP How the cloud and AI will help more companies become future proof In a world where macroeconomic uncertainty has become the new normal, being future-proof is no longer a ‘nice to have’. It’s a must have. By Scott Russell, Customer Success at SAP Dec 06, 2023 4 mins IT Leadership Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe