Salesforce has said it aims to add over 100,000 new skilled jobs to the UK market over the next four years through a partnership with training provider QA.

Three apprenticeship programmes and a developer Bootcamp will be created to boost the country’s digital skills and produce a cohort of graduates trained in Salesforce certifications, the company announced on Thursday.

The initiatives could potentially add over 100,000 skilled jobs in the UK over the next four years, according to IDC, with Salesforce boosting its own ecosystem of customers and partners.

Demand for digital skills has been high for years but it has become particularly acute during the pandemic and the greater use of cloud platforms. QA, which is an established provider of Salesforce training, is aiming to bridge the gap by expanding its work with the company.

In the UK, there is a growing demand for Salesforce technology, according to QA, which is fuelling the need for businesses to quickly find and hire new skilled Salesforce talent.

The Developer Bootcamp is a 12-week intensive course that provides specialist skills required to design data models, user interfaces and security for custom applications as well as the ability to customise them for mobile use. The first boot camp is expected to start in March 2021.

The apprenticeship programmes will provide practical learning closely aligned to specific career paths, namely service desk engineering, marketing professional, and business analytics roles within the Salesforce ecosystem.

All three apprenticeships are available for immediate starts and both initiatives will be complemented by content from a Salesforce’s online learning platform Trailhead, which allows participants to continue to develop their Salesforce skills after they have completed their programmes.

«We care passionately about developing the next generation of skilled professionals for our industry,» said Adam Spearing, Salesforce’s EMEA CTO. «The Salesforce ecosystem represents a growing opportunity and urgent need for talent within our customers, marketplace, partners and developers, and we want to kick-start the careers and pathways for young adults. We are excited to be partnering with QA to launch the Developer Bootcamp and Apprenticeship programmes.»