Build your cloud career with our summer learning list of no-cost training

You may have your summer reading list. Now it’s time for your summer learning list! We’ve compiled the top no-cost courses and labs from Google Cloud Skills Boost to help you on your cloud career path. Build the in-demand cloud skills for top cloud roles, while also boosting your resume with credentials to validate your knowledge. Enrich your current position, or work towards your targeted destination.

Plus, visit The Arcade for additional opportunities to work on your technical abilities directly in Google Cloud around featured monthly topics. There is no cost to play the games! Keep reading to learn more.

Top 5 no-cost courses — earn badges upon completion!

These introductory courses take 90 - 120 minutes to complete. They consist of a mix of videos, documents and quizzes, and you’ll earn a shareable badge upon completion. Enhance your resume and LinkedIn profile by sharing your badges. To share, ensure that you’ve set your Google Cloud Skills Boost profile to ‘public’ in your settings and follow the steps in the video below.

#1 - Digital Transformation with Google Cloud (Introductory, 90 minutes) - If you’re new to cloud or are in a cloud-adjacent role, like sales, marketing or HR, be sure to check out this meaningful and impactful course. You’ll learn why cloud technology is transforming businesses, some fundamental cloud concepts and about the major cloud computing models. 

#2 - Preparing for your Google Cloud Certification journey (Introductory through intermediate, 90 - 120 minutes) - Google Cloud certification has many benefits, including showing potential employers that you are proficient in a given technology; plus, certified practitioners report that they are more involved in decision making and earn higher pay. When choosing the best certification, start by looking at your current role, and then the role you’d like to have. Align with the certification that fits most closely. Check out these no-cost courses to help you prepare. And, evaluate which Google Cloud certification is right for you: Cloud Digital Leader, Associate Cloud Engineer, or one of nine Google Cloud Professional Certifications.

#3 - Innovating with Data and Google Cloud (Introductory, 120 minutes) - Learn about data and machine learning in the cloud. You’ll also be introduced to structured and unstructured data, databases, data warehouses and data lakes.

#4 - Infrastructure and Application Modernization with Google Cloud (Introductory, 120 minutes) - Learn about modernizing legacy and traditional IT infrastructure. This course covers compute options and the benefits of each, APIs, and Google Cloud solutions that can help businesses better manage their systems.

#5 - Understanding Google Cloud Security and Operations (Introductory, 90 minutes) - Learn about cost management, security, and operations in the cloud. Explore the choice between owned infrastructure and cloud services, responsibility of data security, and the best way to manage IT resources. 

Top 5 no-cost labs

Want to get hands-on practice in Google Cloud? Whether you’re new to cloud, or an experienced professional who wants to expand your skill set, labs are a great way to get directly into Google Cloud technology and build your technical skills

#1 - A Tour of Google Cloud Hands-on Labs (Introductory, 45 minutes) - Identify key features of Google Cloud and learn about the details of the lab environment.

#2 - A Tour of Google Cloud Sustainability (Introductory, 60 minutes) - Find out why Google Cloud is the cleanest cloud in the industry by exploring and utilizing sustainability tools.

#3 - Google Cloud Pub/Sub: Qwik Start - Console (Introductory, 30 minutes) - Learn about this messaging service for exchanging event data among applications and services.

#4 - BigQuery: Qwik Start - Console - (Introductory, 30 minutes) - Query public tables and load sample data into BigQuery.

#5 - Predict Visitor Purchases with a Classification Model in BigQuery ML (Intermediate, 75 minutes) - Use data to run some typical queries that businesses would want to know about their customers' purchasing habits.

The Arcade

Come play games with us in The Arcade for another chance to build your cloud skills — no quarters required! Every month we feature two games that include labs from Google Cloud Skills Boost. These give you experience that you can use immediately in a real-world cloud environment. You’ll earn digital badges, and accumulate points that you can use twice per year to claim Google Cloud swag. And there is never a cost to play, so keep coming back to learn more!

Innovators Plus

The items above are just a sampling of over 700 on-demand training opportunities available in the full catalog on Google Cloud Skills Boost. While everything we’ve shared above does not have a cost to complete, some trainings do require credits. For $299 a year, a Google Cloud Innovators Plus subscription gets you over $1,500 in benefits, including access to the entire Google Cloud Skills Boost catalog. It also includes up to $1000 Google Cloud credits, a certification voucher, special access to Google Cloud experts and execs, live learning events, and more.^* Check it out to invest in your learning and accelerate your cloud career.

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