When employees of the State of Texas require technology training, they may be heading back to college — sort of. The Texas Department of Information Resources (DIR) has awarded a two-year contract with an option for an additional two years to the St. Edward’s University Professional Education Center (PEC) to provide information technology training, resources and services to state agencies. Located in the Technology Triangle of Northwest Austin, the PEC is Austin’s largest technical education center and offers a variety of technology training, resources and services including more than 150 instructor-led technical courses and more than 2,000 online classes.

Under the contract, the PEC will offer its extensive technical training curriculum, facilities and related services to all Texas governmental institutions at reduced rates. The result is cost savings to the state of Texas on classes, streamlined procurement processes and contract administration. The contract includes training services for all Microsoft Certified Technical Education courses, Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) technologies, Information Security, Object-Oriented Programming Methodologies, XML and WebSphere.

“The St. Edward’s University Professional Education Center is proud to serve the state of Texas, and we continually strive to strengthen these relationships,” said John Houghton, vice president of the College of Professional & Graduate Studies. “Through the DIR, we can effectively train Texas agency staff while helping the agencies maintain education standards and meet state requirements to better serve the citizens of Texas.”

“The training state employees will receive through St. Edward’s Professional Education Center will enable them to do their jobs more efficiently,” said Rudy Rodriguez, director of the PEC. “Our various curriculum offerings will provide the employees of Texas government agencies with the skills to more effectively plan, deploy and implement new technologies, which translates into savings for taxpayers.”

Founded by the Congregation of Holy Cross, St. Edward’s University has been recognized as one of America’s Best Colleges for 2004 by U.S. News & World Report. St. Edward’s is a private Catholic, liberal arts university of approximately 4,450 students located in Austin, Texas.

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