MadLab, Manchester’s pioneering creative and digital community space, are excited to announce the “Omniversity of Manchester”, a new programme beginning in February 2011 . The Omniversity is a unique series of professional training courses at the MadLab lead by some of the sharpest minds and most cutting-edge practitioners in digital and future-looking sectors in the country. “It’s about giving you the edge in the skills that will be in demand next year, providing insider information in where digital platforms are headed, and connecting you with others developing those skills” said Dave Mee from Omniversity. The courses will range from professional development and cutting edge practices to more esoteric skills. Whether it’s learning about Arduinos and the Internet of Things, mobile platform development for SAP, Android or iPad development best practices, the Omniversity will have a course to help people upskill and develop abilities which will make them stand out in the workplace and open new opportunities.

“The MadLab has spent over a year building up the country’s largest network of like minded technologists, engineers, developers, creatives, artists and alpha geeks” said Hwa Young, from MadLab. “We’ve already helped create new employment in the city through our regular evening programmes and we’re building on this to create training based not on academic models but practical and commercial lead experiences and insight.” The line-up of programme leaders includes published O’Reilly authors, maintainers of core Arduino libraries, award-winning international VJs, co-founders of WordPress, and HTML5 thought-leaders. “Its a wide-ranging mix” said Dave “but we know nowhere else where you can spend a few days learning from people at the top of their field for the same price as a day trip.”

The first Omniversity course, ‘Beginners Guide to Arduino & Physical Computing’, is on the 10th of February. This is a one day intensive course, and the £120 fee includes lunch as well as digital course materials and an Arduino board with all necessary components. Like all other Omniversity courses, each attendee will be connected to the Omniversity’s dedicated social network with the other people from the class where they can continue peer-lead learning.

Other courses coming up in the next few months include ‘Films from the Edge’, an experimental short film course lead by Maria Ruben, and “The Internet of Things” lead by Adrian McEwan.

The course listings are regularly updated and bookings can be made through the site .