The Canberra Institute of Technology (CIT) became an official Red Hat Academy at the start of this year and will offer the RHCT Academy course work to students enrolling in its diplomas and some of its certificates at no extra cost.

The academy courses are based on the Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) program, with some modifications to enable it to be taught through schools, universities and colleges. At the end of the program students are able to sit for the RHCT exam.

"We've spread the content of the Red Hat courses across three subjects, delivering the content over a year and a half. We will also be introducing Red Hat and Linux in our introductory Operating systems subjects which were traditionally all done in Windows," said CIT Faculty of Business and IT James Hamilton.

"Basically, we will be putting at least 50 to 60 RHCT competent people out there in the market every year which will go towards helping the uptake of Linux as well as help address the shortage of ICT (Information and Communications Technology) skills, particularly in Canberra."

Hamilton said the feedback from students has been positive.