re you looking for courses through which you can improve your technological skills? And with that change or progress in career? Good bet! The tech sector currently offers countless opportunities, whether for those looking to give a new direction to their career, or for professionals who intend to climb, seizing new opportunities for development and progression. It is the sector where employers find it most difficult to hire the right profile and, for that very reason, it is generally better paid than most industries. And wage pressure tends to increase.
A market led by the candidate and in which companies are already used to “loosening their purse strings”. Furthermore, it is the sector where you are most likely to find a job with the possibility of working completely remotely, studies and investigations on this subject have been revealing.
With the current lack of talent, there are already several courses and trainings that prepare trainees for the job market, with a very practical aspect and employability rates almost always above 90%. And there are schools where neither age nor lack of code or IT experience are an impediment to investing in a tech career. From bootcamps to online courses, these five trainings promise to improve your tech skills:
1. 42 Lisboa
At 42 Lisboa there is no age limit, nor academic or experience requirements. To submit your application to 42 Lisboa, you only need to first complete two online logic games. If you pass these games, you'll face the test of fire – the Piscine –, an intensive 26-day bootcamp, from Monday to Sunday, which requires a great effort on the part of the candidates. In the end, selected students will have the opportunity to be part of the programming school founded in Paris in 2013 and in Portugal since last year, an international reference. But there are some peculiarities in this school: everyone is a student and teacher at the same time, there are no schedules, the school is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, the course is 100% free and promises an employment rate of 100%.
The target audience is quite heterogeneous: there are professionals who intend to change careers, 18-year-old students who decide to learn programming instead of going to college, and also programmers who intend to improve and learn more about programming.
More information here.
2. LinkedIn Learning
Social networks are also for learning. There are nearly a hundred courses on LinkedIn Learning available in Portuguese, and free of charge. The training covers several areas such as soft skills, project management, customer service, sales and data analysis. These courses, designed for the professionals of the future, are the result of the union between LinkedIn Learning and Microsoft, which aims to provide new free learning paths.
In addition, there is a list of English courses targeted at the top ten jobs posted on LinkedIn in 2020, growing steadily over the past four years, earning above average, and requiring skills that can be learned online. In the technology sector, software developer, IT administrator, IT support/helpdesk and data analyst courses stand out.
Access the courses in Portuguese here and the training contents in English here.
3. Academia de Código
In line with the profile of students at 42 Lisboa, the Academia de Código (Academy of Coding) annually receives students from the most diverse backgrounds – from PhDs to people that studied until the 9th grade – and ages ranging from 18 to 53 years old. The employability rate is also very high (95%), and the students leave prepared to perform functions as junior fullstack software developer, taking on backend, frontend, fullstack or mobile programming positions, giving the Academia de Código support in placement of recent graduates, with a dedicated team, working together with more than 50 partner companies, such as Deloitte, Capgemini or Critical Software. Since 2015, the year it started operating in Portugal, the school has already transformed the lives of more than a thousand talents. Today they are all programmers.
If you want to be part of this statistic, you can submit your application to the programming school, which has opened up places for bootcamps in Lisbon, Porto and Terceira Island, in the Azores. The 14-week bootcamps are aimed at people over the age of 18, who are unemployed or who want to change their careers through technology training.
Applications must be submitted through the school's website.
4. Ironhack
If you're looking for something more specific, Ironhack can be a good option for you. This school has courses in web development, UX/UI design, data analytics and cybersecurity. The formats are flexible and adapted to your needs, being remote or on-campus, full-time or after work.
Right now, Ironhack is preparing another edition of the intensive data analytics course, which aims to prepare students with the necessary skills to enter the tech sector. The face-to-face bootcamp on the Lisbon campus is scheduled to start on January 17th and end on March 18th. Candidates must be over 18 years old, have an intermediate command of the English language and complete the previous preparatory work. The course offers several types of payment, including the “Shared Income Agreement”, which allows candidates with less financial capacity to pay for their course only after entering the labor market. This is an initiative promoted in partnership with the José Neves Foundation.
Learn more here.
5. Coursera
The last suggestion we have for you is Cousera's free online courses, ideal for those who want to boost their career and invest in their ongoing training. Classes are virtual and taught by universities around the world. Most courses are free, and if the student wants to obtain a certificate of completion of training, an issue fee must be paid.
The platform offers a huge variety of learning content and classes can be taught in several languages. In information technologies you will find courses in the area of artificial intelligence, data science, Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud. If you are interested in attending one of these courses, simply register on the platform. Start learning with Coursera here.
Start learning with Coursera here.
