PC AGE Computer School and
Students Thrive on Demand for Skills
By Martin C. Daks
A
Fairfield entrepreneur has found a way to transform jobless
men and women into high wage earners.
Using advanced training techniques, Muhammad Zafar says
even a person with no business experience can soon earn
more than $20 an hour after completing a course at his PC
AGE computer training schools in Fairfield and Edison.
While
Zafar’s come-on sounds like a get-rich-quick scheme,
scores of former students swear by him, along with a New York
City-based consulting group that has hired his graduates.
The hot growth of computer networking and subsequent demand
for qualified network engineers are key reasons behind Zafar’s
stories of personal turnarounds.
Whenever a firm seeks to gain efficiency by linking its computers
together to share data and resources, it needs qualified personnel
that can not only tie the computers together, but can also
sustain linkage through ongoing electronic maintenance.
People who do this are commonly known as network administrators.
Those with experience can easily command annual salaries of
$100,000 or more. Although a variety of software companies
produce networking operating systems, the field is dominated
by two giants: Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft Corp. and Orem,
Utah-based Novell Inc.
Zafar’s school, PC AGE, offers certification training
in both Microsoft and Novell systems. Zafar says his six-month
course, which costs about $5,000, is not for everyone.
A candidate must have some computer aptitude, said Zafar,
although he adds there is no requirement for previous college
or computer training.
Neelum Nawab,
Woodbridge, had the aptitude but no computer background
when she signed up in November 1995. "I wanted to get a
job but I had no experience. I couldn’t even type," she
said
"I checked out a number of other
well-known computer training schools in New Jersey, but PC
AGE offered smaller classes with only one person to a computer.
Some other schools had up to three people sharing a single
PC."
Nawab says her six-month training
paid off.
"Now I’m a consultant,
working with Lucent Technologies as a network administrator,"
she said. "And I’m billing out at $55 to $58 an
hour."
Zafar, who formerly worked as a database
programmer, started the school in 1991 "after a headhunter
told me I was at the top of my salary range, earning $50,000
a year. I wanted to earn more, and I saw computer networks
as a way to do it," he said.
His background prepared him. He earned
a master’s degree in electronics in his native Pakistan,
then moved to the United States in 1985 and went on to get
a master’s in computer science from the New Jersey Institute
of Technology.
"I decided to start teaching
a course in computer networking, and rented some classroom
space," he said. "Then I looked for textbooks, but
I wasn’t impressed with the ones that were available.
So I decided to write my own."
He started PC AGE with $4,000. In
the beginning, few students enrolled. "I would sometimes
have only one person signed up for a course," Zafar recalled.
But as enrollment grew, Zafar expanded from two rented rooms
with a total of 250 square feet to his current two locations
with eight classrooms, seven instructors, and more than 100
PCs. Along the way, his textbooks gained a following.
Zafar said colleges like New York
University and even competitors like Chubb Advanced Training
in Morristown have used his books.
"Many of my students get well-paid
positions with top companies like AT&T, Hoffman-La Roche,
and UPS," said Zafar. There is a great demand for well-trained CNEs.
Dennis O’Sullivan, recruiting
director for Black Rock, a computer consulting firm in Now
York, agrees. "We service the Fortune 500 companies and
we’ve used a number of PC AGE graduates," he said.
"They appear to get a very good overview of computer
skills, much broader than what any other schools offer. For
the most part, we’ve been very satisfied with the students
that came out of PC AGE."
For now, Zafar's school is enjoying
a growth run, but he is aware the business landscape is filled
with competitors. "We compete on quality", he said,
noting that instructors have a Master's Degree or a Ph.D.
"I called the school PC AGE
to reflect the times we are in," Zafar said. "But
I could have called it Mind Age. This is the first time in
history that ordinary people, as opposed to geniuses, can
earn a very good living because of their minds and their analytical
skills. It is a fast-changing field, but a rewarding one.
People have contacted me after they graduated from PC AGE,
and told me that studying here has changed their lives.
