Web specialists to hold Drupal workshop

A Newcastle based website development specialist is representing the UK as part of a global training programme celebrating the Drupal web platform.

Consult and Design International, based in Gosforth, are hosting an ‘Introduction to Drupal’ workshop at the Sunderland Software Centre as part of the Drupal Association’s series of Global Training Days.

Drupal training days are designed to introduce new users to the Drupal platform. Attendees in Sunderland will join 1000s of other delegates at workshops in Japan, India, Nigeria and the USA to learn more about how the Drupal open source platform works and how over one million current users collaborate to build websites via the platform.

The workshop, on November 15th, is open to students, educators and web professionals who are interested in learning more about Drupal, which is used to power millions of websites and applications around the world including NASA and The White House.

The session is designed for those who are interested in exploring Drupal as a career path or current developers who are interested in exploring opportunities on the platform. By the end of the day- long event, attendees will have all the skills to build a website in Drupal using code and expertise shared on the platform.

David Van der Velde, Managing Director of Consult and Design International, said: “As specialists and keen Drupal ambassadors, we are delighted to be hosting the UK workshop of the Drupal Association’s global training programme.

“The Drupal platform is built, used, and supported by an active and diverse community of people around the world through the open source movement.

“Open source is basically where the code that websites are built on is collaboratively developed and then made available for free for anyone to download and develop, install, improve, test and use.

“It is about the open sharing of resources, knowledge and skills among the community in order to aid the development of secure and reliable systems. This way, clients benefit from the input of Drupal developers around the world, rather than just relying on the resources and skills of your own people.

“Because of this, it is increasingly in demand from all sectors, from public sector, major international organisations down to local SMEs keen to get the most out of their website.

“Demand for Drupal developers currently outstrips supply. We see developing Drupal skills in the North East as not only an opportunity to open up new career opportunities for developers and designers, but also a way to expand and develop the existing network of Drupal users in the region.

“This will result in North East companies and organisations further benefiting from the expertise and knowledge of others to create better value, truly unique websites with people all over the world working for their web solutions.”

The event on the 15th of November is the first of a series of events aimed at improving the knowledge of Drupal in the region.

David Dunn, Chief Executive of Sunderland Software City, the initiative driving the development of the software industry in the North East, said: “Open source development provides a huge opportunity for software developers and aspiring software developers in the region to learn and share best practice with developers around the world.

“Consult and Design International is one of the leading Drupal developers in the country and the fact that the UK workshop of the Global Drupal Training Day is taking place in the North East is testament to the skill and drive for innovation that exists within the region.

“This is an excellent opportunity to learn about one of the most innovative and increasingly popular web platforms in the world and develop skills which will prove invaluable to individuals and the overall prosperity of software in the North East.”

The workshop takes place on Friday 15th November 9:30-17:00 at the Sunderland Software Centre, Sunderland, SR1 1PB. The workshop costs only £35 and discounts are available for students.

For further information or to register for the workshop please visit www.drupaltrainingday.co.uk or contact David Van der Velde by e-mail on david@consultanddesign.com or call 0191 645 1111.