Udacity, the Silicon-Valley born education technology company that operates with a mission to democratize education, has announced a new Blockchain Nanodegree program, accessible online across the GCC, Jordan and Lebanon regions. With registrations already open, the paid course is set to commence from July 10, and can help interested participants learn the basics in blockchain for developers- a skill in high demand with today’s tech industry, that can help them get ready for a career in the field.

According to a statement by Udacity, the new global nanodegree program is focused on job readiness by acquiring the in-demand blockchain skills. Further, as a MENA student, participants will also get to build portfolio-ready projects in collaboration with established blockchain developers. “In addition, you’ll build your own blockchain to store and manage data, create your own smart contracts using Solidity, the primary language on Ethereum, and build a blockchain-powered web app for supply chain management,” says the statement.

Commenting on the program, Roshni Jain, Director – Learning Products, Udacity said: “A critical point for aspiring blockchain developers to recognize is that this is still an emerging field. So not only is there wide-open opportunity, but competition for jobs is happening on a comparatively level playing field, because no one is yet in a position to have extensive experience in the field- the space is still too new. This means that recruiters are adopting new strategies to hire the best blockchain developers and having the strongest skill set is key.”

With practical experience being a key differentiator for job seekers in emerging fields like blockchain, Udacity says it has designed the curriculum in consultation with experienced blockchain developers, drawing insights from some of the leading voices in the blockchain space including Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan, David Johnston, Chairman of the Board, Factom, Elena Nadolinski, Solidity Engineer, Co-Creator of Ethmoji.io, and others. The company has also assembled a line-up of talent to be their “experts-in-residence’ for the program, and MENA students will have the opportunity to engage in weekly sessions with such experts.

Udacity began as an experiment in online learning, when Stanford instructors Sebastian Thrun and Peter Norvig elected to offer their “Introduction to Artificial Intelligence” course online to anyone, for free. Over 160,000 students in more than 190 countries enrolled, and this led to the inception of edtech enterprise Udacity.

The Udacity Blockchain Developer Nanodegree program is available for students to enroll now, and to be eligible, students should be comfortable with object-oriented programming, and developing web apps in Java script. Program comprises of two terms of three months each- term 1 relating to “Blockchain Developer: Fundamentals,” and term 2 titled “Blockchain Developer: Architecture and Applications.”

To register and for more details, hurry and visit the official page here.

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