Skills Bootcamp: Free online course in Artificial Intelligence

Fully funded 14-week course available to launch your Digital Career

We’re one of 35 universities that make up the Institute of Coding (IoC). As part of this group, we’ve gained funding from the Department of Education to run a Skills Bootcamp, which is being offered as part of the Government’s Lifetime Skills Guarantee.

Through a collaboration of the academic specialist skills from Huddersfield Business School and The School of Computer and Engineering and partnering with industry, The University of Huddersfield are pleased to offer the Skills Bootcamp in Artificial Intelligence (AI).

 

 

Who is this course for?

Skills Bootcamps are free*, flexible courses, designed for adults aged 19 years or over, unemployed or looking for a new opportunity. They give people the opportunity to build up sector-specific skills and fast-track to an interview with a local employer.

 *please see eligibility and funding criteria below.

How is the course delivered?

Skills Bootcamp taught sessions are delivered online by our industry and academic specialists for 2 hours per day each week, Monday-Friday. All sessions are recorded to allow flexibility to complete the course around your schedule. An additional 20 hours of self-directed learning per week is also required. 

You will be supported throughout the course.

 

Course overview 

We are living in an increasingly automated world. Your deliveries, your online activity, how we interact in almost every way is changing based on the increasing use of computer algorithms. We are moving to a world where more and more suggestions and choices are being made for us by computers. This presents great opportunities but also great dangers.

This skills bootcamp will enable you to better understand this rapidly evolving area by focusing on the role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in society.
Most of the practical work you will do will involve using AI techniques in the context of a business seeking to keep up to date with these technological developments. For example:

• How can we communicate better with our customers and suppliers using AI?
• How can we capture and use data better from our email system and protect ourselves from increasingly sophisticated cyber-attacks?
• How will computers help us be more efficient and effective in storing and distributing our products?
• How can robots also help us improve our business performance?

Alongside this we will also provide lots of other areas for you to explore to understand legal, ethical, and social issues associated with this transformation, and we will also prepare you for interview and employment by asking you to review and develop your current CV using what you learn on the course. Reflection will play a big role in your development as will your ability to engage with a broad range of related content so that you understand how the world is developing and how you can help support this development.

We’re also offering these courses as Continued Professional Development (CDP) programmes for employees who wish to change their focus to digital careers.

What will I learn?

The course will include the following topics to build up your sector-specific skills and prepare you for new opportunities for employment. 

• Employability Skills
• Legal, Social, Ethical and Professional Issues
• Artificial Intelligence Supply Chain Process Improvement Use Cases
• Start Python Programming
• Information Security (algorithms, data, features, training, testing)
• Building an email spam filter and reviewing other security applications
• Natural Language Processing
• Developing a Chatbot
• Stock Control/Management using Machine Learning
• The use of Robotics in Supply Chains
• Personal Development, Interview Preparation, Reflective Practice, CV Development
• Summary Report and AI Simulations

You will be expected to combine work on the above activities with suggested background content to inform your wider understanding and capability in this area.

 

Eligibility 

Applicants must:

• Be aged 19+
• Have the right to live and work in the UK
• Be looking for a new role, opportunity or increased responsibly/promotion to a different role which utilises the skills acquired through their Skills Bootcamp
• Agree to provide data and be contacted up to 8 months after the end of the Skills Bootcamp for follow up on employment outcomes
  and be either:
• Employed/ self-employed, or
• Career changers/returners / redeployed, or
• Unemployed

 

Funding 

To qualify for a fully funded place on the skills bootcamp, applicants must be:

• Unemployed within the last 12 months (may be considered if longer than 12 months) and looking for new employment utilising skills
• Self-employed and looking to upskill, or
• Employed in an unrelated job looking for a new role utilising skills learnt

30% fee contribution is applicable if:

You are currently in employment within a related industry and plan to remain employed within your current workplace. Participants in this category are not eligible for free training, but employers will receive a 70% discount by supporting their employee to re-train or upskill.

If you are in this category, you will be contacted with further information once your application has been assessed.