Google Cloud Katalyst Programme

Overview

The Google Cloud Engineer bootcamp is a free 12 week programme to kickstart your career in tech and is part of the Katalyst Programme — the programme is delivered with support from our partner Google Cloud and includes a version of training used for Google employees.

What jobs could I do after completing the programme?

This programme trains you to become a Cloud Platform Engineer – a cloud engineer is an IT professional responsible for technological duties related to cloud computing, including design, maintenance and support.

Generation and Google Cloud teams have worked closely with employers to build a course teaching what you exactly what you need know to be successful in a tech career from day one.

Who is this programme for?

This programme is open to anyone aged 19+ as at 31st August 2024 who is living in London and currently unemployed or working on a zero-hours contract.

You don’t need any qualifications or experience to apply.

As a charity our mission is to support people who are facing barriers to employment into meaningful careers they otherwise would not have access to. We encourage applications from groups under-represented in the tech industry – particularly women, those without university degrees and those aged under 30.

Listen to some of our graduates speak about what it’s like to study on one of our programmes:

Learner requirements

• Aged 19+ on 31st August 2024
• Resident in a London borough
• Not currently in education, training or employment (except zero-hours contract)
• Have the legal right to work and live in the UK – visa holders should have 15+ months until visa expiry. We cannot accept Student Visas, Graduate Visas, Skilled Worker Visas and Youth Mobility Visas
• Have lived in the UK or EEA for the past 3 years
• Available full-time for the duration of the programme, and ready to start a full-time job after the programme
• You should not have significant experience in a very similar job in the past three years

What will you gain from the programme?

• It’s free! Gain all the skills you need to kickstart a career in the tech industry, at no cost
• Average estimated starting salary from £25-30k in your first role and access to future progression opportunities
• Grow in confidence and resilience, while building your first professional network in the classroom.

What industry skills will you learn?

Technical skills

We’ll help you learn the technical skills with lots of hands-on, interactive sessions. By the end, you’ll understand:

• Computing fundamentals – binary code, hardware and cloud computing
• Linux fundamentals
• Google Cloud fundamentals – inc. big data and machine learning
• Programming fundamentals
• User security and threat analysis
• Computer networking

Don’t worry if some of these technical skills aren’t familiar to you — we’ll teach you everything on the programme. To explore if you’ll enjoy the course content, we recommend trying out some free online coding courses such as Codeacademy or Freecodecamp.

Behavioural skills

In every job, there are key skills that will help you be successful and stand out as a high quality team member. We’ll help you learn how to develop the key behavioural skills that will ensure you can transition into your new career smoothly and successfully. You’ll develop skills in:

• Growth mindset
• Persistence
• Future Orientation
• Personal Responsibility
• Communication and confidence

What do we offer?

Free training – You’ll learn all you need to be successful in a cloud engineering career – from the coding languages and technical knowledge of cloud computing to the employment skills that will help you fulfil your potential.

Free qualifications:

• Google Cloud Digital Leader – you’ll be prepared for and sit this exam as part of the programme
• Associate Cloud Engineer – you’ll be started on a journey of preparing for this exam with the aim of completing it within 6 months of starting your first job with an employer

Connect with employers – At the end of the programme, Generation will connect you with employers hiring for cloud engineer roles, support you through your application, and help you transition into your working life.

Free IT support – if you need a laptop, webcam, or internet connectivity to help you access the boot-camp, we’ll provide it while you study, free of charge

Continue to receive your benefits – If you’re receiving universal credit or other benefits, we’ll work with you to make sure you continue to receive these during the programme.

Program Dates

What does a Cloud Engineer do?

Cloud technology underpins everything we experience online. From Netflix to Facebook, Reddit to the BBC, lots of companies around the world use Google Cloud and cloud services to power their businesses.

Cloud Platform Engineers perform the coding and software engineering that brings the architect’s vision to life. They merge traditional programming skills with specialized knowledge in one or more of the leading cloud platforms’ development environments to build, deploy and optimize cloud-based applications.

A Cloud Platform Engineer’s daily responsibilities and tasks include:

• Implement alerts that warn engineers when something is going wrong, or is likely to go wrong soon.
• Troubleshooting errors for cloud infrastructure
• Deploy software and/or configuration to fleets of computers based on defined rules and processes.
• Write and update documentation and knowledge base articles for internal and external readers
• Create cloud resources (cloud servers, databases, etc) from the web console, command line or using infrastructure as code tools like Terraform.

The application process

Ongoing benefits of Generation

A trusted network. You’ll join our ever-growing network of Generation graduates with access to continued learning and support from us.

Get involved and give back. There are many ways to get involved with spreading the Generation message once you graduate to help more people access life-changing careers.

Ongoing support. Use your new Generation network to find out about future career opportunities and troubleshoot challenges with each other.