The FDM Academy
FDM has operated its award winning Academy Programme for over 20 years and helped over 1500 individuals to become highly skilled, accredited technical consultants. The Academy is FDM's apprenticeship programme that indentifies those graduates who are suitable to join FDM and work with our customers once they have acquired the relevant skills.
In 1996, FDM acquired a training school in Hastings, known as Mountfield Software. Here they were training students in Informix-4GL and hiring them as permanent staff, they were known in-house as Mounties. The name has since stuck and all our permanent IT consultants are referred to as “Mounties”!
The Mountie
Following a rigorous candidate application process Mounties undertake comprehensive training over a 2-4 month period in our unique Campus Academy. Here they learn specialist IT skills including UNIX, Oracle, SQL and other key technologies. Students then follow a path in either Testing, Finance or Development, with Developers opting for a Java EE or .Net route.
On completion of the training, our students sit exams with the relevant industry body. For the developer streams either Sun Certified Java Programmer ("SCJP") or Microsoft Certified Application Developer ("MCAD") qualifications are obtained.
Testers are certified by the International Software Testing Qualifications Board ("ISTQB"), while Finance Analysts sit exams with the Securities and Investment Institute.
On completion of the training, our Mounties became permanent FDM IT employees on a full-time two year employment contract.
Benefits
The Mountie solution provides a series of benefits to our clients, including significant cost savings and fewer risks associated with staff retention and knowledge management.
Time - The Mountie gives FDM the ability to offer appropriately skilled consultants within agreed timeframes. Typical notice periods on FDM staff and project teams are set at 4 weeks.
Staff Retention - The Mountie, due to their two year contractual arrangement with FDM, can remain on-site with our clients for the duration of his/her employment contract and may transition to permanent employment with the client when all parties are in agreement. FDM places great emphasis on our ability to facilitate our clients’ retention of resource through our permanent staff base.
Scalability - FDM is able to ramp up quickly to deliver large teams as easily as one’s and two’s. With our Global Solutions team, all our Mounties are supported by experienced Consultants and Managers who can provide quality, competence and a professional attitude.
Mobility - All Mounties, being permanent staff of FDM are able to work anywhere within the EU, who have been rigorously technically vetted and accredited with either Sun, Microsoft, ISTQB or IAQ, ensuring the highest technical standard.
