In today’s blog post, I wanted to share and make some awareness about a student initiative for getting students into Power Platform alongside their university studies!
This’ll cover what the Power Platform University Hub is and why you as a student might be interested, or why you as a faculty leader should be interested, or perhaps you’re even an employer… yup, I’ll tell you why you should be paying attention to this THING!
What is the Power Platform University Hub?
The Power Platform University Hub is an initiative between Microsoft and the Project Management Institute to enable teaching students how to solve a wide range of business problems with low-code.
The University Hub prepares students from both a technical point of view where students will finish the course seeing them achieve the PL-100 Microsoft App Maker certification, but also sees them finish the course with an understanding of an appropriate framework to develop on low code platforms with, with them also finishing with a PMI CD-Trained Practitioner micro-credential.
This collaborative / fusion approach leaves students prepared to move into low-code careers with both technical knowledge and knowledge around the best approach to take when using low code as a development tool, whether that be from a project management perspective, a business analyst type perspective or a technical perspective.
Students, let’s chat…
So, if you’re a student reading this post, you might be wondering why should I be interested in this? What will I get out of it?
Well, to start with low-code is one of the fastest growing technologies in the job landscape today. So… there are JOBS. The low-code industry is very quickly growing, with numbers and numbers of companies looking for skilled personnel.
My personal like for low code, is that you’re able to produce something 10x faster than when using pro code aproaches to development. You almost have a result in front of you as you’re developing your solution.
From my perspective, I left education after A-Levels / High School and went into my career in low-code without a degree, so this isn’t something you’re needing to have a 1st or 2:1 for. If you do, great, but this extra knowledge alongside your degree will leave you with a pathway, should your current one not be of as much interest to you anymore.
Another point I’d mention, is that with hard work, progression in the low-code space can be FAST. I’m working as a consultant now only about 6 months after leaving school, but started as an internal developer to my consultancy.
Universities, here’s some info!
The university hub provides students with a fusion style curriculum online between a technical approach to low-code and a less technical approach where students understand a framework to work against when implementing low code solutions.
The learning journey students can be provided with includes over a dozen courses and students come out with 2 certifications at the end boosting their employability, and well whilst their at university, your employability rates!
This’ll be something that you can use to aide preparing your students to enter the world of work, making them an awful lot more attractive to employers. Those certifications make them visible!
You can read more about the benefits here and sign up too – Power Platform University Hub (microsoft.com)
Employers – there’s a huge skilled workforce on the horison
So… employers! Why might you be interested in the Power Platform University Hub? If you’re an employer with a strong partnership with a university, my strong advise is to take a look into this! Make that university or institution aware of this program. The chances are a year or two later you’ve got a cohort or two leaving their institutions looking for jobs in the low-code space because of the skills they’ve gained using the courses from Microsoft and PMI.
This’ll give potential employees and students leaving institutions so much more than just a degree in their specialised area. This’ll give them industry relevant skills for supporting the acceleration of low-code in your businesses.
Check it out! and as some Microsoft friends say… do the thing!