A key focus of Learning Innovation’s work in online learning is partnering with faculty to design education that meets learners’ needs. In professional education, learners need courses and programs that make a meaningful impact in their work: gaining new insights or perspectives within their professions, acquiring job-relevant skills and actionable knowledge, advancing to the next level professionally, or finding a new career path.
With this aim in mind, Learning Innovation has partnered with Noah Gift from Duke’s Master of Interdisciplinary Data Science (MIDS) program to launch a non-credit Specialization, “Building Cloud Computing Solutions at Scale“. In this course series, you can learn cloud computing skills that are aligned with the growing career opportunities in cloud technology. Looking at labor market data collected by Emsi, here are three snapshots that show how Duke’s Specialization maps to skills that are in high-demand in the job market today.
The need for cloud computing professionals is growing
Between 2017 and 2020, employers have posted over 790,000 jobs requiring cloud computing skills, with employer demand for cloud professionals increasing nearly 150% during this timeframe. In 2017, there was an average of ~36,000 job postings each month for cloud computing roles. That number grew to an average of ~90,000 monthly postings in 2020, and the upward trend looks like it will continue in 2021, based on initial data.
There is a potential cloud computing skills gap
Here are the top 10 most common skills sought by employers for new hires in cloud computing, with the gold bars highlighting skills taught in Duke’s new Specialization on cloud computing. For example, of the 790,000 cloud computing jobs posted in the last fours years, 44% of them also required skills in Amazon Web Services, and 28% required skills in Python.
Note: Skills highlighted with gold are the focus of Duke’s Cloud Computing Specialization.
Several of the skills taught in Duke’s Specialization also focus on addressing potential skills gaps in the cloud computing jobs market. In the chart below, the blue bars indicate the percentage of job postings that require a specific skill, the gold bars indicate the percentage of relevant professionals’ online profiles (e.g., LinkedIn) that mention that skill. The gaps between the blue and gold bars could indicate potential skills gaps in working with cloud platforms (i.e., Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure), automation and DevOps.
There is growing demand for professionals who can work with cloud platforms
One of the unique advantages of Duke’s cloud computing Specialization is that you will learn to work with all three of the major cloud platforms: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Azure, and Google Cloud. Demand for AWS skills in cloud computing jobs has increased more than 160% in four years (2017 to 2020). Over the same time period, employer demand for Azure and Google Cloud skills has also skyrocketed, a 250% increase for Azure and a 360% increase for skills with Google Cloud.
“Building Cloud Computing Solutions at Scale” is an online learning experience developed by Noah Gift, a lecturer and consultant at the Duke MIDS program, and other data science education programs at Northwestern, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, and UNC Charlotte. Noah brings extensive professional experience to his teaching, including roles ranging from Chief Technology Officer, General Manager Consulting Chief Data Scientists, and Cloud Architect.
You can learn more about or enroll in “Building Cloud Computing Solutions at Scale” on Coursera. This non-credit course series also has a 7-day free trial option for you to try out the course series before deciding whether to fully enroll. Please note that you should have beginner level Linux and intermediate level Python skills before taking this Specialization.