York University launches Canada's first post-secondary DevOps program during a crucial time of digital transformation
TORONTO, Dec. 1, 2020 /CNW/ - In May 2021, the York University School of Continuing Studies will launch Canada's first university-level Certificate in DevOps to help fill the labour shortage in this rapidly growing technical field.
DevOps is a methodology that combines software development (Dev) and information-technology operations (Ops) to shorten the systems development life cycle while focusing on quality and continuous delivery. DevOps enables separate roles to coordinate and collaborate to better produce digital products and respond to customer needs.
"This program answers a need in the market today, as more and more organizations look to harness the power of the cloud to modernize their businesses and deliver new and improved services to customers," said Rejean Bourgault, Country Manager of Public Sector, Amazon Web Services (AWS) Canada, Inc. "DevOps is a growing discipline across organizations, and we support York's commitment to developing programs that bridge the IT upskilling gap in Canada."
According to Gartner's 2019 priority matrix, DevOps will play a central role in organizations undergoing digital transformation over the next two to five years.i During the pandemic, many businesses have moved portions of their operations to online delivery or created new digital products in short order. For industries immersed in developing software and digital products today, DevOps adoption would have transformational benefits.
In a 2020 report of top 15 emerging jobs in Canada, the DevOps Engineer role was listed at number seven.ii Organizations across Canada and the GTA are looking for ways to best staff their teams for DevOps roles, but are facing challenges finding talent. The School of Continuing Studies' new Certificate in DevOps aims to address this talent shortage by providing IT professionals with a robust skillset so they can help facilitate a DevOps cultural and technological transformation within their organizations.
"Although, the pandemic has slowed or stalled hiring in many industries, emerging technical professions, such as DevOps, are still experiencing labour shortages during this critical, transitional time in tech fields," says Tracey Taylor-O'Reilly, Assistant Vice-President, Continuing Studies. "Our research indicates that many GTA organizations are at various stages of DevOps adoption. The School's innovative Certificate in DevOps – the first of its kind in Canada – I'm proud to say, will help mid-career IT professionals change or advance their careers by gaining applied knowledge in this discipline. They will graduate with the skills and confidence to pursue DevOps opportunities and emerge as leaders in this new, exciting profession."
The Certificate in DevOps is developed through collaborative relationships with industry leaders like Fahd Gulzar, Amazon Web Services National Programs Lead, Canada Public Sector. The program is also taught by industry expert instructors to ensure students are receiving a current and relevant education.
The program's part-time, online and accelerated delivery format allows students to graduate faster and pursue career advancement opportunities in just six months. Students enrolled in the program will deepen their understanding of how DevOps can provide operational and technological benefits to an organization and how to implement best practices that derive maximum value using Agile project management methodologies.
The School's Certificate in DevOps will also allow enrolled students to go deep on specialized knowledge. The program's curriculum includes experiential learning activities and case studies on successful DevOps implementations. Students will engage in lessons to successfully construct a DevOps automated pipeline using trending tools such as Gitlab, Ansible, Jenkins, Docker, Kubernetes with Helm, Terraform, Prometheus and Grafana.
Students also have the added advantage of completing this program as part of a cohort. This means they will advance through the program with the same set of working professionals, encouraging peer-to-peer collaboration and growing their professional networks.
The new Certificate in DevOps is now open for registration with classes beginning May 3, 2021.
About the York University School of Continuing Studies
The York University School of Continuing Studies is a diverse community of learning united by a shared sense of purpose — achieving personal and professional growth in a world of constant change. Our ability to help students lead in the face of this change has made us the fastest growing school in Canada.
We set our students up for success by teaching them specialized knowledge and technical skills, as well as enhancing their soft skills, cultural understanding, and cross-disciplinary know-how.
The School embraces a global perspective through collaborative relationships with leaders in industry and academia across Canada and around the world.
[i] Priority Matrix for DevOps, 2019 (As of July 2019), Gartner, ID: 369900
[ii] 2020 Canada Emerging Jobs Report, LinkedIn
SOURCE York University School of Continuing Studies
Hassan Ally, Director, Marketing and Enrolment Management, 416 317 8265, [email protected]
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