Announcing STEP: Software Testing Education Program powered by Barclays
We are excited to announce the launch of the Software Testing Education Program (STEP) in partnership with Barclays, a five-week pilot course currently in development that will be offered to a select group of 20 Per Scholas alumni (graduates of our 15-week A+/Net+ course) later this summer. The project is in collaboration with several committed partners: Association for Software Testing, DevelopSense, QASymphony, QualiTest, Satisfice, SmartBear, uTest, Virtusa, and Workroom Productions.
The global software testing market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 21.15 percent over the period 2012 – 2016. In layman’s terms that is… a lot of jobs. The STEP curriculum, written by Barclays, is tailored to prepare students to compete for these entry-level software testing roles that are in high demand. The intensive course will be lab-based, instructor-led training supported by exercises, field studies, industry experts, and exposure to leading edge software testing tools. Students will be selected for the program after successful completion of the core Per Scholas 15-week curriculum and successful achievement of Comp TIA A+ certification.
By the end, Per Scholas participants will have acquired industry leading testing skills and techniques, be given access to real life projects, and participate in field studies to learn alongside working professionals and be given the opportunity to interview for apprenticeships for openings with our corporate partners, like Barclays.
Get Involved. If your company wishes to participate, there are many ways. Companies can provide facilities for Field Studies which will require 4 hours for students to visit a live project and observe software testing being conducted on a real world project. Organizations or individuals may participate in the STEP Mentoring program which pairs graduates with senior test professionals for career guidance and development. Lastly, the goal is to have 20 apprenticeships ready for students to be considered at partner firms with software testing openings. If you have an opportunity to open up to the Per Scholas scholars, there could be no greater contribution. To get involved contact [email protected] to learn more and sign-up.
Click here for the complete program and curriculum.
Barclays and the supporting partners are pioneers. Their work with STEP is empowering Per Scholas to innovate with technology and as a result provide its students enormous opportunities in their life-changing careers. Learn more about the committed partners who helped make this possible:
Barclays is a major global financial services provider engaged in personal banking, credit cards, corporate and investment banking and wealth and investment management. They are contributing training materials, access to testing experts as well as delivering training to STEP. http://group.barclays.com/
Association for Software Testing (AST) is a professional non-profit association that is dedicated to advancing software testing and strives to build a testing community. They are providing graduates of STeP one year free memberships to the AST. http://www.associationforsoftwaretesting.org/
QASymphony creates simple, yet innovative products that manage the testing, tracking and replication of bugs in the software development process. They are providing free software and licenses for the STeP students to learn and practice test management, execution and defect tracking. http://www.qasymphony.com/
Satisfice is owned by James Marcus Bach who is a software tester, author, trainer and consultant. He is a proponent of exploratory testing and the context-driven school of software testing and is credited with developing session-based testing. Satisfice is providing discounted training in James “Rapid Software Testing” methodology. http://www.satisfice.com/
SmartBear offers powerful, affordable and easy to use software development, testing, performance and post deployment monitoring tools. They are providing free software and licenses for the STeP students to learn and practice test automation. http://smartbear.com/
uTest provides “in-the-wild” software testing to companies of all shapes and sizes through a global community of 80,000 professional testers in 190 countries. They are inviting STeP graduates to attend their uTest “Sandbox” program – a real-world testing exercise – where they can earn money for submitting valuable bugs and receive professional feedback on ways to improve their skills. http://www.utest.com/
Workroom Productions is owned by James Lyndsay who has been testing since 1986 and has worked independently since setting up Workroom Productions in 1994. James is contributing his Black Box Testing Machines so students can practice techniques that can be generalized and transferred. http://www.workroom-productions.com/
A special thanks to Keith Klain of Barclays for making this pilot possible. Read what he had to add straight from his blog and another post by QASymphony.
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