In an effort to alleviate an impending critical shortage of developers, Cloud Foundry Foundation, an open source project whose stated purpose is to make Cloud Foundry the leading application platform for cloud computing, is launching a cloud-native developer certification initiative.
The “Cloud Foundry Certified Developer” program will be delivered in partnership with The Linux Foundation. Training will be offered by companies, including SAP, IBM, and Pivotal, to help meet significant end user demand.
The “Cloud Foundry Certified Developer” program follows a report issued by the Cloud Foundry Foundation in November 2016 that surveyed nearly 900 IT executives worldwide and revealed an escalating gap in cloud skills which threatens enterprises’ ability to embrace digital transformation. The survey found companies are doubling down on training internal engineering teams, rather than outsourcing engineering overseas or hiring new talent, to address the skills shortfall as digital becomes the modern business core competency. Cloud Foundry Developer Certification seeks to address these shortages with the preferred method of training while equipping developers with a lasting, marketable skill set.
Cloud Foundry says that there are a quarter-million job openings for software developers in the U.S. alone, half a million unfilled jobs that require tech skills, and the forecast grows to one million within the next decade.
The new Cloud Foundry Developer Certification is being designed to help developers set themselves apart when looking for a first job or upgrading their current role. Available online, Cloud Foundry Developer Certification and training can be taken wherever there is demand in the world.
Certification is the best way to verify job candidates have practical experience with Cloud Foundry, across any distribution, including 2017 Certified Platforms: Huawei FusionStage, IBM Bluemix Cloud Foundry, Pivotal Cloud Foundry, SAP Cloud Platform and Swisscom Application Cloud. The training material can also be licensed, allowing Cloud Foundry Foundation members to offer the content through their own customer training channels.
The program suite includes a free introductory course offered via the edX platform; a self-paced eLearning Cloud Foundry Developer course; a training partner program which can include licensed materials for live, in-person Cloud Foundry developer classes, offered only by member companies including Engineer Better, IBM, Pivotal, Resilient Scale, SAP, Stark and Wayne and Swisscom; and a “Cloud Foundry Certified Developer” Certification, awarded to individuals who pass a performance-based exam.
“Companies need developers and developers need jobs. We pinpointed this growing gap in the industry and recognized our opportunity to give both developers and enterprises what they need,” said Chip Childers, CTO, Cloud Foundry Foundation. “The Cloud Foundry Foundation is a nexus for collaboration and growth across industries with the open source mentality that everyone should win - our members, end users, developers - so it’s logical for us to drive a training and certification program that enriches the professional lives of developers and makes them valuable assets to companies who prize them for their own digital transformation.
At launch of the new Cloud Foundry Developer Certification initiative, training will be offered by more than a dozen leading technology, education and systems integration organizations around the world, including Engineer Better, IBM, Pivotal, Resilient Scale, SAP, Stark and Wayne and Swisscom. The Linux Foundation, which has trained more than 800,000 students in over 215 countries on critical skills and certifications around Linux development, systems administration and OpenStack since 2003, will offer the online eLearning infrastructure for the Cloud Foundry Developer Certification initiative.
Developers can register for the free introductory course on edx.org in early May. The self-paced eLearning course “Cloud Foundry for Developers” will be available to the general public on June 13 for $500. The Certification exam takes up to four hours to complete and can be taken online for $300, or in-person at the Cloud Foundry Summit Silicon Valley on June 13-15, 2017.
To find detailed information on the suite of offerings, visit www.cloudfoundry.org/training.