Google has launched a new effort, in partnership with online learning service Udacity, to help developers become more skilled and capable at developing for the Android platform. The company has created a new credential called a Nanodegree based on a curriculum designed to take 9 to 12 months to complete. The coursework can be completed on your own schedule, but Google suggests at least 10 hours per week be devoted to the effort. The fee is $200 per month although a one week free trial is currently being offered as part of the launch.
In addition to the traditional coursework, students will be engaged in several projects to produce actual apps, add features and capabilities, prepare them for production, and implement Material design concepts. Skills in these areas will be developed using several sample apps that students will build during the course. At the end, students will prepare and develop their own app as part of a Capstone project.
Google thinks developers will want to take advantage of the new Nanodegree in Android development as a way to tap into the continued growth of the Android platform. Android is already activated on over 1 billion devices and Google expects it to grow beyond smarphones to “become the brains behind invisible, ubiquitous cloud-connected computing.”
As part of the launch for this new program, Google plans to invite up to 50 students to Google’s Mountain View headquarters for a career summit. Google is also planning to make this Nanodegree available around the globe. One of the first steps in that effort was to localise the course in Modern Standard Arabic so it could be deployed in Egypt where Google is offering 2,000 scholarships for interested students. Google says other country localisations are being worked on.
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source: Google/Udacity
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