INTELLIGENT CLOUD
Interest in cloud
computing ubiquitous
The Oracle Academy in the region has members from UAE, Oman,
Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar, Egypt explains Jane Richardson.
O
racle, through its flagship Oracle
Academy programme, advances
computer science education and
makes it accessible to students globally
to drive knowledge, innovation, skills
development, in technology fields. Oracle
Academy leverages Oracle’s technology to
deliver programmes to secondary schools,
vocational schools, two and four-year
colleges, and universities.
Offering a complete portfolio of
software, curriculum, hosted technology,
faculty training, support, and certification
resources, Oracle Academy helps students
gain hands-on experience with the latest
technologies and develop industry-
relevant skills prior to entering the
workplace. With institutional members in
120 countries, Oracle Academy partners
with educators to make more than 3.5
million students annually college and
career ready.
The programme is open to accredited,
degree and diploma-granting institutions.
Once an institution is a member, any of
its teachers and students can benefit from
Oracle Academy. Additionally, educators,
educational administrators, and students
can join Oracle Academy as individual
members and gain direct access to Oracle
Academy benefits.
From the Middle East and North
Africa region, in 2016–2017 academic
year, Oracle Academy has members in the
UAE, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar
and Egypt. In the UAE specifically, Oracle
Academy now has members across 28
higher education institutions supporting
over 75 University faculty members and
11,000+ students. These include key
educational institutions including the
Abu Dhabi University, Higher Colleges
Jane Richardson, Senior Director, Oracle Academy, EMEA.
of Technology; American University in
Dubai, Sharjah and Ras al Khaimah;
Zayed University and Middlesex
University Dubai.
With Oracle Academy, students
develop IT and business skills using
software that is used widely across
hundreds of industries. There are varying
interests across the wide range of Oracle
Academy courses in database design,
SQL, PL SQL, Java programming and
application development across different
countries. Interest in cloud computing is
however ubiquitous.
Before students can write applications
in the cloud, they have to master
foundational computing, including SQL
and PL SQL skills and object-oriented
programming. Data is at the core of so
many modern innovations – big data, data
science, machine learning and artificial
intelligence among them – so developing
SQL and PL SQL skills are the basis for
future growth and success.
In fact, the practice environments
Oracle Academy offers in its SQL, PL SQL,
and Application Development courses
are cloud based. With Oracle Application
Express, users design, develop and deploy
database-driven applications using only
a web browser. Through full academic
curriculum, Oracle Academy students
and faculty gain hands-on cloud-based
computing experience by using APEX.
Oracle Academy curriculum is
developed specifically as academic
courseware. The goal is to help provide
students with the skills they need to
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