DURBAN - The Durban University of Technology (DUT) has partnered with the Amazon Web Services (AWS) to offer a curriculum that is dedicated to improving the cloud-computing focused skills.
DUT is one of three higher education institutes to partner with the UK based academy.
According to Dr Progress Mtshali, a senior Information Technology lecturer at DUT, the AWS academy approached DUT's Information Technology Department about the opportunity to integrate cloud-based technologies and cloud-computing in their curriculum.
In order for DUT to eligible to have this programme at the institution that had to meet certain requirements including:
1. Accredited post-secondary institutions in eligible countries that offer an undergraduate degree, post-graduate degree, diploma, or continuing education programs in areas of study such as computer science, engineering or disciplines with a cloud computing interest.
2. Nominate two educators to attain AWS Academy Accredited Instructor status for each AWS Academy Curriculum
3. Deliver the entire AWS Academy curriculum over a minimum of six weeks.
The curriculum has been created for higher education institutions to help students develop in-demand cloud computing skills and to get them ready for the industry.
DUT students will benefit from the theoretical cloud computing knowledge and also hands-on practical experience using the AWS platform which provides more than 100 services.
Mtshali said, "Students will learn how to provision virtual servers, design and deploy cloud databases, configure cloud-based networks, conduct cloud-based analytics, and many more skills".
The IT department at the institution has not decided whether the programme will be extended to part-time students but it will start with full-time students.
Currently cloud-computing will only be available to IT students but the objective is to offer it to other programmes at the university.