MongoDB University announces new partnerships to expand education outreach and close the technology skills gap

MongoDB, Inc  announced new education partnerships and initiatives to enable and empower future developers through education and help close the widening software-development skills gap globally. To ensure the training is accessible to more developers globally, MongoDB has established distribution partnerships with Coursera and LinkedIn Learning, both with networks of millions of global learners. And, to ensure that developers from traditionally underrepresented groups have an opportunity to gain skills with MongoDB Atlas, new partnerships with Women Who Code, MyTechDev, and Lesbians Who Tech & Allies will provide free certification to 700 developers. In addition to these partnerships, the MongoDB for Academia program now offers new benefits for educators such as free MongoDB Atlas credits and certifications. MongoDB University is releasing new online learning courses to reskill database administrators and professionals that use SQL—a querying language for relational databases—on how to take advantage of non-relational database technologies.

Whether it’s to compete against incumbents in their market or aggressively go after new opportunities, organizations across all industries are digitally transforming themselves by building their own software. However, despite the increased importance of developers to a company’s success, there is a lack of software engineers to meet this growing demand. Software developer roles are ranked as the number-one profession in the 2023 Best Jobs Report from U.S. News & World Report, which takes into account median salary, current job openings, and long-term demand. The backbone to every application is the database, and the choice of which database to use has a direct impact on not only the success of an application, but also how fast it can be built, deployed, and continually updated. Tens of thousands of customers and millions of developers rely on MongoDB every day as their preferred database to power applications because of its flexible data model, speed to deploy new features, and performance at scale. MongoDB has been named as one of the most desired database technologies for aspiring developers who are learning to code since StackOverflow introduced databases as a category in their Annual Developer Survey in 2017. The new initiatives announced today make it possible for new developers across the globe to quickly learn and become certified using MongoDB to build a wide variety of modern applications across high-demand industries:

• Women Who Code is an international non-profit organization that provides community and programming assistance to women pursuing technology careers and career services and connects them with companies seeking professional developers. MongoDB University is partnering with Women Who Code to certify 100 members by the end of 2023.
• MyTechDev is a non-profit organization focused on empowering African students by providing them with practical coding skills and specialization pathways in enterprise technologies. MongoDB University is partnering with MyTechDev to certify 500 people in Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, and Egypt over the next two years. Software developers represent the highest-paying profession on the African continent according to research from Business Insider Africa.

• Lesbians Who Tech & Allies is a community of LGBTQ women, non-binary, and transgender individuals in and around tech. MongoDB University is partnering with Lesbians Who Tech & Allies to certify 100 members beginning in October 2023.
• LinkedIn Learning: MongoDB University developer courses have been added to LinkedIn Learning to reach a wide audience of global learners who are interested in broadening their software development skills. The MongoDB University courses include Introduction to MongoDB and additional courses for using MongoDB with the popular programming languages Java, Python, C#, and Node.js. These courses will be packaged into Learning Paths to prepare students for the MongoDB Associate Developer certification. Millions of people turn to LinkedIn Learning every day to get the skills they need to transform their careers, with LinkedIn members adding 446 million skills to their profiles over the last year alone. This partnership presents an opportunity to expand the reach of MongoDB University content and expose new learners to MongoDB to prepare themselves for a career in software development.

• Coursera: MongoDB University’s Introduction to MongoDB course is available to more than 124 million global learners on the Coursera platform. Upon completion of the course, electronic certificates will be available to add to LinkedIn profiles or users can opt to receive a physical certificate. Learners on the Coursera platform are able to use official educational materials developed, maintained, and updated by experts at MongoDB.

• Academia: In addition to upskilling and certifying those who are already in the tech industry, MongoDB is helping close the technology skills gap by educating and empowering the next generation of developers. The MongoDB for Academia program recently launched new program benefits for educators, including more than $400,000 of MongoDB Atlas credits, free certification, and access to free curriculum resources to prepare students with in-demand database skills and knowledge. The program also offers students MongoDB Atlas credits and free certification through the GitHub Student Developer Pack. These benefits are available globally and allow students to enter the workforce with industry-relevant skills and certifications.  
• New content for upskilling existing professionals on MongoDB University: To support professional developers who want to broaden their skill sets, MongoDB University is releasing new online learning courses for database administrators and SQL professionals. The new MongoDB for SQL Professionals learning path will help those with a SQL background build on and expand their database knowledge and skill set so they can build applications using the most popular non-relational database in the world.

Since refreshing MongoDB University last November, more than 50,000 developers per month have taken advantage of the free, ungated courses with more than 600 individuals becoming MongoDB certified professionals.

“At MongoDB, we love developers and are pleased to provide free, on-demand educational content for new learners and professional developers who want to expand their existing skill sets on the learning platform of their choice,” said Raghu Viswanathan, Vice President, Education, Documentation, and Academia at MongoDB. “Along with providing a free and frictionless learning experience via our website, we’re excited to partner with LinkedIn Learning and Coursera to distribute our content to meet more learners where they are and partner with non-profit organizations to help train individuals from traditionally underrepresented groups.”

“Our goal is to empower diverse women to excel in technology careers with more than half of our 343,000 members identifying as software engineers,” said Alaina Percival, CEO at Women Who Code. “MongoDB is one of the most popular database options for building modern applications, so we’re thrilled to help our members get certified using the official MongoDB University course curriculum.”

“There is a huge demand for software development skills among African youth, but many don’t have access to inputs needed to master coding with a focus on enterprise technologies,” said Wilberforce Oshinaga, Director at Mytechdev. “Getting students MongoDB certified in Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt, and South Africa will boost their knowledge and help them start or grow their careers.”