Abstract
Digital transformation has increased the demand for skilled Information Technology (IT) professionals, to an extent that universities cannot satisfy it with newly graduated students. Furthermore, the economical downturn has created difficulties and scarcity of opportunities in other areas of activity. This combination of factors led to the need to consider requalification programmes that enable individuals with diverse specialisations and backgrounds to realign their careers to the IT area. This has led to the creation of many coding bootcamps, providing intensive full-time courses focused on unemployed people or unhappy with their jobs, and individuals seeking a career change. A multidisciplinary group of higher education teachers, in collaboration with several industry stakeholders, have designed and promoted an embedded systems programming course, using an intensive project-based learning approach comprising 6 months of daylong classes and a 9 months internship. Having finished two editions of the programme, a questionnaire was presented to the students that finished successfully, in order to evaluate the long-term benefits to graduates and companies. This paper presents a brief discussion of the programme organisation and pedagogical methodologies, as well as the results of the questionnaire, conducted following a Goal–Question–Metric (GQM) approach. The results demonstrate very positive outcomes, both for graduates and companies.
Highlights
The ongoing digital transformation, enabled by technological advances such as BigData and the Internet of Things (IoT), has been a major trend with significant crosscutting impact on cross areas of society, such as health care, industry and services
It was decided to have two subjects being taught at the same time, meaning lessons related with programming and embedded Systems were interleaved during the week
This paper presents the results of an embedded system training and requalification programme
Summary
The ongoing digital transformation, enabled by technological advances such as Big. Data and the Internet of Things (IoT), has been a major trend with significant crosscutting impact on cross areas of society, such as health care, industry and services. Data and the Internet of Things (IoT), has been a major trend with significant crosscutting impact on cross areas of society, such as health care, industry and services This has promoted an ever growing need for Information Technology (IT) professionals. It is highly desirable that opportunities exist allowing the professional requalification of individuals with low IT expertise, thereby promoting the chance for a successful career realignment or advancement This is advantageous for these individuals themselves, and for society at large, because it helps to address the shortage of IT-skilled labour. From the IT industry perspective, short courses, such as coding boot camps, are quite effective in inducing software development skills, both hard and soft, compared to traditional 4-year college courses [1,2]
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