Students pursuing undergraduate degrees in engineering, computer science, IT, and other related fields: Are you curious about how to apply training and certifications to your real-life, day-to-day experience, or to upskill your technical capabilities? If so, this blog is for you.

In September and October 2023, approximately 100k students from 700 educational campuses in India completed the Google Cloud Computing Foundations course, learning generative AI skills that they can use on the job.

These students completed the course with help from learning content provided by Google Cloud Study Jams, community-led study groups run by Google Developer Student Clubs (GDSC). These study groups help aspiring developers get hands-on training in Google Cloud technologies, from containerizing applications to data engineering to machine learning and AI. They are set up as study parties, for a range of cloud topics and skill levels, and they can be tailored to group needs.

The study jam events in India had a significant impact for student learners and facilitators:

1. Students learned key foundational and technical skills to prepare them for their future careers.
2. Student facilitators had the opportunity to gain a relevant Google Cloud certification.
3. Nominated student facilitators gained leadership experience amongst their peers.

How it worked

The Google Developer Student Clubs team in India started by reaching out to Google Cloud Developer Advocate Romin Irani to train student facilitators nominated from each GDSC educational institution. This train-the-trainer program focused on generative AI and cloud computing basics, and ran as a series of live sessions every week. The facilitators were then ready to manage the learning experience for students at their campuses.

In turn, student facilitators trained their students using learning material that is available to anyone, at any time. We encourage you to go check it out yourself. Materials included:

• Google Cloud Computing Foundations: Cloud Computing Fundamentals - Comprised of videos, labs and quizzes, this introductory content helps learners gain hands-on skills in Google Cloud infrastructure, networking, security, data, and AI and ML.
• The Arcade - This no-cost gamified learning experience offers gen AI technical labs and the opportunity to earn swag. The games change from month to month, and must be completed within the month. The students in India worked on prompt engineering games.

Facilitators chose how they wanted to train their students. Some facilitators let students go through the training independently, acting merely as a point person for troubleshooting. Some taught the content digitally, and some in-person. Many facilitators took a hybrid approach.

Here’s what Himanshu Jagdale had to say about the facilitator experience:

“Being a Cloud Facilitator in Google Cloud Study Jams was a game-changer for my certification journey. It not only deepened my understanding of Google Cloud, but also allowed me to share knowledge, and collaborate with other facilitators who really helped me during my Associate Cloud Engineer certification. The hands-on labs and expert sessions by Romin Irani enriched my practical skills, making a significant contribution to my success in achieving the Google Cloud Associate Cloud Engineer certification.”

Participant Adarsh Rawat said:

“The Google Cloud Study Jam program was immensely beneficial to me. The hands-on labs and modules assisted me in building concepts and covering the certification syllabus. Honestly, I am a big fan of labs, as they allow for the coverage of most vital topics at once.”

Get involved

If you're a student with a passion for technology, we invite you to join a Google Developer Student Club near you — there are over 2100 Google Developer Student Clubs around the world, and joining one can help you learn, grow, and build a network of like-minded individuals, as well as find out about upcoming study jam opportunities. (If you’re not a student but looking to join a local community to stay connected and grow your skills, be sure to check out your local Google Developer Group.)

You can continue upskilling on Google Cloud by playing The Arcade at no-cost, with new games published regularly. Not only does The Arcade help you learn new hands-on technical skills, it also lets you gain points to use towards cool Google Cloud swag.

You can also visit Google Cloud Skills Boost for on-demand, role-based training to help you build your skills and validate your knowledge, any time, anywhere. You’ll find a variety of training options for in-demand job roles, like data analyst, security engineer, cloud engineer, machine learning engineer, and more, at levels ranging from introductory to advanced.

Start 2024 strong by upskilling with Google Cloud.