Advice on IT direction

[Florahird]

Hello.

One of my DDs is interested in the digital skills bootcamps on offer from the government. She has four good A levels including maths and further maths. She dropped out of university earlier this year.

DD was going to apply to do one in coding but a friend of mine mentioned that she thought this was a bit passé. I don't know whether this is correct.

If you work in this area or recruit in it, please would you be able to say which of these jumps out. It would help to have a short list as we don't have anyone in the family who works in this area. Sorry - it is a long list.

Any advice really appreciated!

Potential bootcamps
Artificial intelligence
Augmented reality and emerging technologies - level 3
Building information modelling (BIM)
Cloud computing and data analytics
Coding - Northcoders Excellence Scholarship for Skills Bootcamps
Cyber security - Online
Cyber security - level 3 Online
Cyber security and networking - level 5 Online
Cyber technician -
Cyber technologist - Online
Data analyst - Online
Data analyst for business - level 3 Online
Data analytics and visualisation - from advanced Excel to Power BI Online
Data and service management - Online NCH
Data engineering - Online Durham University
Data engineering and analytical tools - level 4 Online
Data science Online - TechTalent Academy
Data science (with Microsoft certification) - Online
Data science and cloud systems - Online
Data skills accelerator level 3 - Online
Data technician - Online
DevOps: DevNetSkills by The Open University - Online The Open University
Digital Online Learning -
Digital leadership Online
IT support level 3 Online
IT technician Online
Junior software developer Online
Machine learning and AI for business applications
Microsoft data analyst Online
Microsoft data engineer Online
Microsoft IT engineer Online
Microsoft software developer Online
Software development Online - Durham University
Software development (with Microsoft certification)- Online
Software engineering and development Online
UI/UX design for games Online
Web development skills Online
Website design and development level 3 Online

Depends what she’s interested in. My partner works in cyber and he says a basic coding knowledge is always helpful. If interested in cyber any sans course is very well regarded www.upskillcyber.co.uk/
lots of apprenticeships going round for system admins at the moment too

I only recruit interns and graduates, into a large global organisation, but those that have been successful recently have done so in data and analytics and cyber security. We don’t employee devs specifically, but appreciate the skills.

@Anunusualfamily @SellFridges Thank you!

Cyber is calling out for females. Even better is cyber in operational technology. Think energy, water, hospitals etc. New regulations means this area is exploding. She'd need background in general cyber first.

Cloud analytics - is an area that is in ever increasing demand. Anything mentioning data lakes.. 🙃

@LuciferRising Thank you!

@Boopear Thank you. Off to Google data lakes!

Cyber security and Data Privacy

Data Privacy is a huge growth area, until recently GDPR was pretty much it, then California bought in the CCPA, in the last couple of years China, Saudi Arabia, Australia, Russia and Turkey have released their own Data Privacy laws modelled on GDPR but with some specific requirements.

It ties in very closely to Cyber Security/Information Security frameworks so the better your understanding of the technical mechanisms in place to secure data the better you will understand and be able to implement the data privacy frameworks.

Cyber Security (Chief Information Security Officer) and Data Privacy (Data Protection Officer) are both roles/functions that are in demand and attract good salaries.

With those maths skills? Machine learning and AI. Almost anyone can be trained to fulfill most IT roles as they’re little more than admin - machine learning is “hard”.

@BuenoSucia Interesting. Thank you!

Hacker High School Lessons are good and free to look at. Give her an idea of interest.

These are free too I believe www.cisa.gov/uscert/ics/Training-Available-Through-CISA

@FatAgainItsLettuceTime Thank you. The feedback is really helping.

@LuciferRising Done. Thanks.

With your daughter's math background, a good direction would be coding or any other data-related course. As for coding being passé, I wouldn't worry too much about that. The demand for skilled coders is still high, and it can be a valuable skill to have in any job. As for shortlisting, it really depends on her interests and career goals.

If she's interested in cybersecurity, any cybersecurity courses would be a good fit. The data analyst or data science courses will be a good choice if she's more interested in data. In addition, she can take microsoft training that will allow her to achieve a higher salary and get more satisfaction from her career. Good luck to her on her digital skills journey!

She needs to think about what she's interested in as a career

Does she want to do "hard tech" or work with people to solve business problems? Does she want to work in an engineering/technology company or not?

If she wants to do hard tech then probably AI is the way to go.
If she wants to work with business then data modelling/BI would work.

If I had to pick one off there it would be Devops.

Be careful with the Microsoft ones as she would be tying herself to a specific technology type, rather than more general.

There's load of companies doing cyber apprenticeships for women, she needs to Google if that appeals to her