Wishing you Merry Christmas

Sorry couldn’t resist the cheeky cheesy dog picture – anyway, wishing you all a lovely festive break from whatever you need a break from! We hope it doesn’t turn into a single handed week of chores but gives you time for some feet up time (and switch off social media!!)

And in the new year how about …

Skilling up into Data Science

£10K Scholarships for MSc Data Science January starts – applications now live and close Jan 5th!

Scholarships will be prioritised for black, female and disabled students. Additional availability may extend to:

• students from areas of the UK where young people are less likely to go on to higher education (POLAR quintiles 1 and 2)
• care experienced students
• estranged students
• Gypsy, Roma, Traveller students
• refugees
• children from military families, veterans and partners of military personnel. 

Even without the Bursary its a great industry to take a look at and the MsC is a lovely option for anyone returning to the industry or wanting to career pivot.

Microsoft Apprenticeships

We are so excited to unleash our apprentices on the range of Microsoft product, tools and resources, such as Copilot, Microsoft Azure, Power Platform, and GitHub Copilot, as well as training and certification. They will also be able to apply their skills and knowledge in real-world projects and scenarios, such as creating chatbots, developing web apps, or automating workflows, supported by TDM’s expert coaches and trainers and our own Microsoft managers and mentors.

Delivering “skills first” Degree Apprenticeships in the Era of AI

Cyber Security Apprenticeships

In the dynamic realm of cyber security, apprenticeships stand as gateways for aspiring professionals. In this article, I’m going to dissect and compare two crucial standards: Level 3 Cyber Security Technician and Level 4 Cyber Security Technologist. By unraveling their unique scopes, responsibilities, and career trajectories, we can guide aspiring cyber security enthusiasts toward an informed choice.

Deciphering Cyber Security Apprenticeships: A Comparative Exploration of Level 3 and Level 4 Standards

Ivy Li learnings

Here’s some things that Ivy Has shared with us:

Scratch

Okay so its a site for kids – but it also makes it pretty accessible for reskilling adults and they use it in CS50 to explain the concept of coding – which is a great idea for a base.

And on Ivy’s learning Journey (using chatGPT)

3 days, 7 questions, 6 concepts: #𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 #𝐋𝐞𝐞𝐭𝐂𝐨𝐝𝐞 𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐏𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 #𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐭𝐆𝐏𝐓

My friends, just popping in to share my recent 3-day learning sprint. Here is what I did:

Part A

𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 with ChatGPT

• A huge amount of `𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭`, `𝐡𝐨𝐰` 𝐚𝐧𝐝 `𝐰𝐡𝐲`
• Have a big picture of data types then dive into each
• 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐞 tools (Set, Tuple, Arrays, Lists) in Python from

1. Syntax
2. Index or not
3. Heterogeneous or Homogenous
4. Immutable or mutable
5. Memory usage
6. Use cases

Part B

• 𝐓𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 LeetCode Questions with ChatGPT ‍
• Wrote down my solution and tested if it works
• If it did not work, I asked ChatGPT if there was something wrong
• If I had no ideas about the question, I asked for some 𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐬 without any direct solutions
• If I was not sure about the function, I asked for 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐞𝐱𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬
• After submitting the right answer, I asked for 𝐚 𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐧𝐞. I also 𝐝𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐝 my solutions on LeetCode and explained the method, time, and space complexity

𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐬

• High Engagement: my 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐠𝐮𝐨𝐮𝐬 during conversations, and I can keep focused for a couple of hours
• Add new tools in my toolset: I am adept at using loop and Class to achieve data manipulation
• I made progress quickly: I solved 3 easy questions on day 1 and solved 2 easy and 2 medium questions on day 2

𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐬:

• Lack of Realism: At the beginning, ChatGPT overrated my knowledge and problem-solving speed
• Necessity for strategic conversations: I had to actively guide the discussions, which means I 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐛𝐞 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐜𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫 about my comprehensive methods and purposes

Conclusion:

I understand concepts more 𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐲 with proactive learning, some vague points disappear after doing the real problems. ChatGPT behaved as an excellent teaching assistant, who is knowledgeable, and 𝐢𝐭 𝐬𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐥𝐨𝐭𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞. This proactive approach has reshaped my learning methods, I am eager to see where this method takes me next.

BTW, my friend, 𝐇𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐲 𝐂𝐡𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐦𝐚𝐬 and I hope you have a fantastic holiday.