Microsoft Azure Cloud Engineering

Overview

The Microsoft Azure Cloud bootcamp is a free 12 week programme designed to kickstart your career in tech — the programme is delivered with support from our partners at Microsoft and will prepare you to work in cloud engineering roles that use the Microsoft Azure cloud platform.

By the end of the boot-camp, you’ll be able to perform engineering tasks related to building, extending and maintaining software and services running on Microsoft’s Azure Cloud Platform, preparing you to work in teams of tech professionals at a wide variety of different organisations.

As part of the boot-camp, you’ll complete the Microsoft Azure Fundamentals qualifications, which will help set you up for success in future roles.

What jobs could I do after completing the programme?

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

Generation and Microsoft 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 in England and currently unemployed or working on a zero-hours contract.

You don’t need any qualifications or experience to apply and we encourage applications from groups under-represented in the tech industry – particularly women, those without university degrees and those aged under 35.

We are looking for learners who:

• enjoy working with technology but don’t have much or any experience
• enjoy problem solving and thinking creatively to find solutions
• like to work in a team to complete tasks or challenges

Eligibility criteria

• Aged 19+ on 31st August 2024
• Resident in one of: London, West Midlands, Yorkshire, Greater Manchester (please see above for specific programme location dates)
• 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
• Student Visas, Graduate Visas, Skilled Worker Visas and Youth Mobility Visas are not eligible
• 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:

• Workplace strategies
• Communication strategies
• Programming foundations
• Computing foundations
• Networking foundations
• Linux operations
• Platform operations
• Plus, gain a Microsoft Azure Fundamentals certificate

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 – from the necessary technical skills skills to the employment essentials that will help you achieve your potential.

Connect with hiring employers. In the last few weeks of your programme, you’ll work with our Employability Coaches to prepare for life after your boot-camp. We’ll help prepare your CV and develop your interview skills, ready to be connected to hiring employers and to be supported in your job search. We’ll support you with every application and help you transition into working life.

Dedicated mentor support during the programme and for up to 6 months afterwards to give you the best chance of succeeding and overcoming any challenges.

Continue to receive your benefits. If you are receiving Universal Credit or other work-related benefits such as JSA or ESA, we will 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.