There was a brief discussion on the VITA program during this weeks ProfessionalVMware.com Brownbag with David Davis and there seemed to be a fair bit of interest in it so I put together a post.

If you are looking to fulfill the training requirements necessary to obtain your VCP but you don’t have the time (or cash) to dedicate to a straight week of VMware instructor led training check with your local community college or technical school they may participate in the VMware IT Academy Program. The VMware IT Academy Program or VITA allows qualified schools to offer VMware training.

Here is the program overview from the VITA web site:
“The VMware IT Academy Program is designed to introduce students to VMware technologies and equip them with VMware technical skills to compliment their chosen fields of study. VMware will provide selected academic institutions with course materials developed by VMware for this purpose. By instituting this program, VMware seeks to create a collaborative relationship with academic institutions whereby their students may obtain the VMware Certified Professional (VCP) status and other VMware certifications.”

Tidewater Community College (TCC), one of the local community college in my area, offers a Virtualization Career Studies Certificate program that includes two VMware classes. The class ITN 254 is the equivalent to the VMware vSphere 4: Install, Configure, Manage training that is required to obtain the VCP. The advanced class ITN 255 is a semester long and includes three VMware classes; VMware vSphere 4: Manage Availability, VMware vSphere 4: Manage Scalability, and VMware vSphere 4: Troubleshooting. TCC may have vSphere 5 classes available as early as the summer 2012 semester.

I took the ITN 254 class in the Fall semester 2010 and obtained my VCP shortly after completing the class. I took ITN 255 during the Winter semester 2011 and after a month or so of hands-on practice took and passed my VCAP-DCA exam. For the last couple semesters I have been helping out with the TCC lab environment and assisting with the ITN 254 class instruction on a volunteer basis. Both ITN 254 and ITN 255 are excellent classes with a lot of good hands-on lab experience.

So if you are looking for VMware training check with your local school. For the cost of a few credit hours and a few hours of your time each week you can complete the VMware training required for VCP. Here is a list of schools that participate in the VITA program.