Dries Buytaert

For a long time now, I've been saying that we need to train more Drupalistas. Almost every Drupal company I talked to is trying to hire talented Drupal developers, but can't find any, to the point that it is holding back Drupal's adoption.

To help train more Drupal users and developers around the world, Acquia will develop and maintain a Drupal training curriculum, and commercially license the curriculum to our partners so they can more easily deliver training to their customers. Chapter Three has signed on as Acquia's first Drupal training program partner.

Having to develop and maintain high quality curriculum is a lot of hard work. By taking on most of that work on behalf of our partners, we hope to enable them to deliver more training, and to deliver it more cost-effectively. The net result should be that it helps to advance the Drupal ecosystem, and most importantly, that we'll be training many more Drupal people.

We're also excited to share that Heather James will be heading up our learning services. Heather has an extensive background in education, and with user ID 740 on drupal.org, an extensive background in Drupal as well. We'll develop our training offerings by looking at Drupal as a domain of knowledge, and what it takes to get someone up over the learning curve quickly above the "kick ass" threshold. To craft high quality learning services, we'll be looking closely at individual learners' needs and goals to expand beyond introductory Drupal workshops.

For more information, also read Tom blog's post, Heather's blog post, or heck, even read our press release if you will.