The Signal ICT Graduate School has begun lectures and director Stuart Charters, of Christchurch, said there had already been overwhelming interest in some of its courses.
The school is a collaboration between the University of Canterbury, University of Otago, Lincoln University, the Ara Institute of Canterbury and Otago Polytechnic.
Dr Charters said the school offered four programmes which would allow people to upskill in various information technology (IT) roles in industry and education.
The Educate programme is an 18-month to two-year course designed to upskill secondary school teachers so they can teach the digital technologies curriculum - particularly computer science and computer programming aspects.
The Shift programme is a nine-month course which takes people from a non-IT background and trains them to take on IT roles.
The Accelerate Programme is for recent IT graduates who are in their first IT role, and the Extend Programme is for more experienced people in IT roles who are looking to take on more leadership activities.
Both Accelerate and Extend are 18-month to two-year courses, he said.
Students would be lectured by local university and polytech staff, as well as by industry experts.
Dr Charters said five people had already begun the Shift programme, and about 25 teachers were expected to begin the Educate programme with a boot camp in the April school holidays.
''We've been overwhelmed with the number of teachers interested in the Educate programme, which is really good.''
He said up to 10 people would enter the Accelerate and Extend programmes later this year. It was hoped 40-50 students would be studying at the school by the end of this year.
