In 2018, millions of people used Pluralsight to learn and update their digital skills, and the site has compiled a list of the most popular ones

“2019 promises to be another year where software dominates the tech and IT landscape, so knowing which languages and programs are coming out on top is useful to both companies trying to keep up with competition as well as developers to stay relevant in a highly competitive jobs market.”

Top 10 most popular software development technologies in 2018:

1. JavaScript
2. Java
3. HTML
4. C
5. Git
6. C++
7. Python
8. CSS
9. Blockchain
10. SQL

The more things change in the world of software, the more they remain the same
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“Pluralsight platform usage in 2018 shows that the more things change in the world of software, the more they stay the same. Java, C++, SQL and HTML are annual staples on our top 10 lists because they are the bedrock of modern business,” says Sean Farrington, SVP EMEA at Pluralsight. “These are the languages that organisations have relied upon from inception and the vast majority of what today’s users experience is this code. These four heavyweights power everything from simple websites to the complex, rich web applications,” he explains.

In 2018, millions of people used Pluralsight to learn and update their digital skills, and the site has compiled a list of the most popular ones
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Highest growth software development technologies:

1. Svelte
2. Apple MDM
3. Jest
4. Kotlin
5. Dart
6. Microsoft Powerapps
7. Microsoft Flow
8. Oracle Cloud Platform
9. Apache Knox Gateway
10. Apache Nifi

Java, C++, SQL and HTML are the languages that organisations have relied upon from inception and the vast majority of what today’s users experience is this code
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“Svelte, Jest and Kotlin’s growing popularity underscores the importance of JavaScript to modern programmers. It goes without saying that the ubiquity, flexibility and extensibility of JavaScript will make it one of the most important programming languages of the century. “What surprised us this year, is that Microsoft Flow and PowerApps feature so highly. They are both fundamental to a growing trend that empowers non-programmers to create automations that often go on to become mission-critical to a business. If you think back on how important Microsoft Access was to business in the 1990s, it’s easy to draw a parallel to these two new technologies that are quietly enabling innovation and self-service at every level of a modern organisation.

These four heavyweights power everything from simple websites to complex, rich web applications
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Pluralsight also allows users to test their knowledge on any given topic and last year over 1 million of these assessments were taken. The top 5 were:

1. Javascript
2. C#
3. Python
4. Java
5. HTML

The ubiquity, flexibility and extensibility of JavaScript will make it one of the most important programming languages of the century
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“If past is prologue, 2019 will follow a similar pattern to 2018. However, enterprises should keep in mind that if you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got. Organisations wanting to stand out from the competition should certainly test the waters with new approaches to software development. It could be the difference between success and failure in the year ahead,” Farrington concludes.

Check out the Infographic below for the highlights!

Microsoft Flow and PowerApps are fundamental to a growing trend that empowers non-programmers to create automations that often go on to become mission-critical to a business
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Organisations wanting to stand out from the competition should certainly test the waters with new approaches to software development
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Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Infographic: Top Coding Languages to learn in 2019 appeared first on Tech Trends.

Youth who have experienced conflict often have big dreams for jobs, but they can’t know what those roles actually entail, because they lack role models they can relate to, and there are few – if any opportunities for actual work experience. So they get into a role without full context and often are disappointed and suffer mental health challenges / depression as a result of the employability options they face.

This is what Nada Ibrahim Hassan Hussen dreams of changing through technology skills training and a VR platform that she’s in the early stages of developing. Hussen is Programmes Manager at Athar, a non-profit organization based in Rusifeh, Jordan (a sub-grantee of Mercy Corps). Athar works on developing young people’s resilience to conflict through giving them technology skills in partnership with training platform Pluralsight as a path to better employment.

Youth who have experienced conflict often have big dreams for jobs, but they can’t know what those roles actually entail, because they lack role models they can relate to
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Nada is an exceptional young woman and a role model for young people, and specially young girls
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She started exploring the idea of using VR to give those youths a preview of roles so they can see what lie ahead, understand the options available to them in different industries, and generally help cast a (better) view of their future.

Hussen says that when she was growing up she wanted to be a doctor, but a passion for gaming – she still remembers playing Mario on an Atari console – eventually turned her towards technology and a desire to work with children and help them realise their dreams. Athar, in Arabic, means “the impact” and that’s what Nada wants to achieve by creating a safe and inclusive space where young people are free to dream.

Athar, in Arabic, means the impact, and that’s what Nada wants to achieve by creating a safe and inclusive space where young people are free to dream
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“Nada is a Palestinian refugee who has devoted her work and career to youth development at this small NGO. She has had to work incredibly hard and overcome all sorts of barriers around gender, ethnicity, economic limitations, etc. to gain an education and to become a leader in this community. She now wants to enable other youths to achieve the same,” says Lindsey Kneuven, Head of Social Impact at Pluralsight.

Nada is a Palestinian refugee who has devoted her work and career to youth development at this small NGO
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Many adolescents don’t qualify for NGO programming because funding is focused on children, yet they are amongst the most vulnerable. And she’s done this in a place where there is no precedent for VR – she found the technology solution that would enable her to solve for the need she has identified in her community and now she is investing in teaching herself the technology and building the skills she needs to make it a reality by studying on the Pluralsight platform (which offers courses in tools such as Unity) in her own time.

Many adolescents don't qualify for NGO programming because funding is focused on children, yet they are amongst the most vulnerable
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“Nada is an exceptional young woman and a role model for young people, and specially young girls. Through Pluralsight One (Pluralsights social responsibility initiative) she is unlocking technology skills and building towards her VR solution,” Kneuven explains. “Not only does Nada develop and implement programming for young people, but she does it all with a focus on psychosocial support, such as helping youth overcome trauma tied to genocide, abuse so that they can productively engage in their educational development, avoid being absorbed into conflict and extremism.”

“My dream is to create a VR solution that helps youth see their future in a place where role models and jobs are so scarce,” says Hussen. “I want to use technology to help youth to overcome poverty and to explore a new tool to create a new chances for employment, exploring our identity for the world as we see it, not as people in the outside world see us.” Technology can transform the world, it can open doors, so it’s important to democratize technology so that we can find and take advantage of new opportunities that are out there in the world.

This article was originally published on VRScout

Non-Profit ‘Athar’ Is Developing VR Employment Education For Jordan Youth via @alicebonasio https://t.co/uTGgJrurL1 pic.twitter.com/IeFG7f9s65

— VRScout (@VRScout) November 6, 2018

Want to leverage Augmented, Virtual and Mixed Reality to take your brand to the next level? Tech Trends offers comprehensive Immersive Technologies Consultancy to help you get there.

Alice Bonasio is a VR and Digital Transformation Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Flying with Virtual Wings appeared first on Tech Trends.

How Pluralsight wants everyone to access the skills they need to thrive in the digital age.

Tech Trends went back to the Silicon Slopes of Salt Lake City last week to check out this year’s Pluralsight LIVE. After last year’s amazing line-up which included Michelle Obama, expectations were pretty high, but the conference managed take a leaf from the former FLOTUS’ own book and reach even higher, delivering – among other things – an inspirational fireside chat with the world’s youngest-ever Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Malala Yousafzai

Pluralsight 2018 featured an inspirational fireside chat with the world’s youngest-ever Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Malala Yousafzai
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Technology and education are incredibly empowering forces
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One of my favourite Malala quotes ever – and I might be paraphrasing a bit – goes something along the lines of “nothing scares an extremist or dictator as much as a girl with a book. She told Pluralsight CEO Aaron Skonnard that she often wished governments around the world would realize the power of education to empower women as keenly as the Taliban has. “They understood it perfectly, which is why they tried to stop us going to school.” In today’s digital world, a logical extrapolation of that would be that despots should be even more scared of girls with computers.

Technology and education are incredibly empowering forces, and giving people all over the world access to the resources they need to develop technology skills would unlock amazing possibilities for everyone.

“We’re committed to help close the opportunity gap, and we’re doing it by addressing it at the root cause by magnifying the efforts of successful non-profits,” Skonnard told the attendees.

This is something he’s is very passionate about: His father first taught him to code when he was eight years old and he believes that every child should have access to the sort of opportunities that those skills unlocked for him throughout his life.

Using cloud, people have a choice. The only way we can earn their business is by having the skills to deliver value
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After their IPO in May, Pluralsight is in the enviable position to have over $200 million on its balance sheet to invest and grow the company, and social responsibility remains a cornerstone of that future growth and investment strategy. Which is why one of Pluralsight’s major announcements made sound strategic sense as well as chiming with the company’s philanthropic mission.

After their IPO in May, Pluralsight is in the enviable position to have over $200 million on its balance sheet to invest and grow the company
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In addition to partnering with non-profits to amplify their mission by providing them with discounted access to its platform, the Pluralsight One Fund will also give a $1.5 million grant to Code.org over three years to deepen opportunities for girls and students of color to access computer science education. Students taking Code.org’s Computer Science Principles course will also have the chance to gain free access to Pluralsight’s courses to further their learning.

The Pluralsight One Fund will also give a $1.5 million grant to Code.org
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Joining Skonnard on stage, Code.org CEO and Founder Hadi Partovi said that the problem that lies at the core of the digital skills crisis today is that formal education systems are simply not designed to keep up with the pace of technological change we’re experiencing. “As a society we’re not prioritizing technology enough. We’re not starting early enough, it’s not seen as a basic skill like reading, writing or maths,” he added.

Yet there has definitely been progress, much of it driven by organizations like Code.org which teamed up with the College Board to make the AP (Advanced Placement) Computer Science course more accessible. This year, out of the 135,992 who took the course, 38,195 were female. So while girls still make up only 28% of students taking the AP exams, females and under-represented minorities were among the fastest growing groups. African-American students rose 44 percent to 7,301, Hispanic and Latino participation gained 41 percent to 20,954 and female participation rose 39 percent compared to last year.

As a society we’re not prioritizing technology enough
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Among all the high-level tech companies attending the Pluralsight conference there seemed to be a clear understanding that addressing these issues – getting more people from all backgrounds to learn – and keep learning – those skills is not only about promoting equality of opportunity, but crucial to building a sustainable (and profitable) business strategy.

Formal education systems are simply not designed to keep up with the pace of technological change we’re experiencing
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This is easier said than done, however, as in order to do that, companies need to – in addition to providing access to learning tools and content – create a culture of learning which tolerates failure. As Oracle President of Product Development, Thomas Kurian put it during his keynote, building the future and being at the technology leading edge requires a sense of mission which goes beyond any individual product:

“If you don’t have at least 10% of products failing it means you’re not pushing hard enough, failure is part of the organic development process.”

“Agile is a culture,” agrees Cody Sanford, EVP & CIO of T-Mobile, which is another of Pluralsight’s Fortune 500 customers. Sanford believes it is imperative for companies like his to also create flexible paths for new talent to gain the skills they need, and constantly keep them updated as strategy evolves.

Role IQ gives a clear path to determining a technology professional’s expertise level by deploying their machine learning algorithms Iris
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Which is where Pluralsight’s latest product announcement fits in; Role IQ gives a clear path to determining a technology professional’s expertise level by deploying their machine learning algorithms Iris. Where the company’s previous product – Skill IQ, unveiled at last year’s conference – measures an individual’s proficiency in a specific software technology with a short five-minute test involving about 20 questions, Role IQ measures a collection of skills an individual needs to be successful in their role.

Nate Walkinshaw, Chief Experience Officer at Pluralsight said this will allow the platform to offer a highly personalized learning experience. “Iris will constantly tailor content based on the way each individual learns, but also benchmarking their existing skills against others in the industry and suggesting ways in which it would be most advantageous for them to develop further. It tells you where the gaps are.”

At the time of launch, over 120 skill assessments were already available across a variety of technologies such as Security Analyst, Unity Game Developer, Server Administrator or Node Web Developer. These also include three roles specifically tailored for Pluralsight’s launch partner Microsoft Azure.

Iris will constantly tailor content based on the way each individual learns, but also benchmarking their existing skills against others in the industry
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Jeff Sandquist, GM of Cloud and AI Developer Relations at Microsoft “This is not your mother and father’s Microsoft” much more flexible and dynamic, which also means being a lot more agile in supporting skills within the developer community. “Using cloud, people have a choice. The only way we can earn their business is by having the skills to deliver value. But how do you get your people trained, and how do you do that consistently? How do you assess that? It’s what Microsoft is looking to solve with Role IQ,” Sandquist added.

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio and @techtrends_tech on Twitter.

The post Closing the Opportunity Gap appeared first on Tech Trends.

For Technology Skills Platform Pluralsight,  bridging the digital skills gap and addressing the diversity problem is all part of a good business strategy.

In as little as five minutes and 20 questions, technologists around the world can measure their current skill level
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“Technology is poised to create a world of incredible prosperity and opportunity or incredible inequity, so our mission is to democratize technology to the world, and by so doing close the digital skills gap,” says Aaron Skonnard, President and CEO of Pluralsight.

In an environment where the typical software engineer has to re-develop their skillset every 12-18 months to keep up with changes in technology, the learning platform that Skonnard founded 13 years ago has tapped into the huge demand for high-level digital skills. A recent report by Stack Overflow showed that developers are increasingly diversifying the way they learn, and that they generally did not evaluate their colleagues on the level of their education but on a well-rounded skillset.

“If you are choosing to be a developer today, you are choosing to be a lifelong learner, there’s no other way to survive.” says Skonnard. “The best developers are the ones who really love to learn and are committed to keeping learning. That’s very true of tech in general, which is what makes this market so unique to us.”

Pluralsight now work with about 40% of fortune 500 companies and boast a valuation of almost $1 billion. Their community of course authors consists of a highly curated group of industry experts working as contractors to generate exclusive content for the platform. “We spearfish for best authors and best teachers in the industry, out of 100 accept only 1 or 2,” explains Skonnard. Their author community is currently about 1500 strong, and they can earn substantial royalties through their content – their top author made over $2 million last year.

Pluralsight works with about 40% of fortune 500 companies
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I met Skonnard at the company’s inaugural Pluralsight Live conference in Salt Lake City. The area is home to a surprisingly vibrant cluster of technology companies, known as “Silicon Slopes,” but a lot of people had travelled from much further afield to be there, including former First Lady Michelle Obama, who herself has always been a passionate advocate for education.

Salt Lake City boasts a vibrant tech ecosystem known as Silicon Slopes
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But in spite of the usual tech conference celebratory mood, the focus of the event was on tackling some the big issues facing the technology industry, and society in general. And in Pluralsight’s vision, the two are fundamentally aligned:

“Bringing together the demand for tech skills and the talent that currently does not have the access to training and resource is the easiest and surest way to break the cycle of poverty. We have to tackle both at the same time and there are no shortcuts,” Skonnard told the 1800 attendees during his opening keynote. “We will create a future for marginalized communities and transform technology learning.”

One of the features announced at the conference that they believe will help towards that goal was Pluralsight IQ, a score (ranging from 0-300) that tells you where your various skills stack up against the global population of developers. There are currently 45 skill assessments available across a variety of subjects, including Angular, C#, JavaScript and Python, with plans to quickly grow the collection.

“In as little as five minutes and 20 questions, technologists around the world can measure their current skill level and receive a verified Pluralsight IQ, which provides a quantified measure of their current skill proficiency, a timestamp that reflects the relevancy of their score and an easy way for them to showcase it.”

Pluralsight currently offers 45 skill assessments available across a variety of subjects, including Angular, C#, JavaScript and Python
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“There’s this guy in Lagos, Nigeria who just tweeted about getting his first Pluralsight score, and he got a 238 in Javascript (he was part of the A-B testing group) And that person now knows they’re in the 93^rd percentile of all Javascript developers globally, and would be considered an expert. This fellow is a great example of someone who like the companies in the US would know nothing about but there’s a person there who could really be a part of closing the tech skills gap,” says Skonnard. And since the test is free for anyone to take anywhere in the world, this creates a large amount of useful data that businesses can tap into: “We can give CIOs the tools they need to tap into all that experience and brilliance that might have been hidden before. And because of how accessible it is, that really plays into the social impact side too.” he adds.

That social impact half of the strategy is called Pluralsight One, a pledge by the company to dedicate at least 1% of its resources (product, time, profit and equity) to help learning, technology and philanthropy through supporting nonprofit organizations to equip the people they serve with technology skills.

Lindsey Kneuven, the newly engaged head of social impact at Pluralsight, believes the high-speed pace of technological change is introducing new types of vulnerability for those who are underserved or impoverished. “Through Pluralsight One, advancements in technology will now provide these same groups with incredible opportunities to solve complex, global challenges and create solutions for a better, more abundant world,” she says.

There are many successful examples of digital skills being leveraged in this way, such as TechHire Eastern Kentucky which taught coding skills to people in regions struggling with the decline in traditional industries such as coal mining.

“The way we’re going to be able to close the gap is by really reaching out to all those marginalised communities around the world where technology can open up a whole new future to them and we want to serve them. Creating the skills in those communities will increase the diversity across the tech industry and bring a whole new set of experiences and brilliance into it. We can give them the tools they need to develop those skills, and technology can open up a whole new future for them.” adds Skonnard.

Although it is easy to see the social value of these initiatives, the commercial benefits for corporations struggling to find the skills to execute on their technology strategy is considerable
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This is far from charity in the traditional sense, however. Although it is easy to see the social value of these initiatives, the commercial benefits for corporations struggling to find the skills to execute on their technology strategy is very considerable indeed.

“Right now CIOs and CTOs are in charge of some of the most mission-critical projects in the world and they’re doing it without any real insight into the technological skills of those people, but now our enterprise customers are going to be able to see all this data from the Pluralsight IQ test through our skills analytics and our channel analytics,” says Skonnard, adding that A CIO leveraging such tools would be able to assess the skills across their entire organisation (and even outside it) in real time, and find specific talents which might otherwise have remained hidden

Skonnard likens this to Moneyball – the story of the Billy Beane – recently played by Brad Pitt in a movie adaptation of the story – the general Manager of the Oakland A’s who propelled his low-budget baseball team to success using maths and science: “This guy was able to discover talent that nobody else in the world knew about but because of the data they could see it and put together a team that wasn’t full of all stars, but because of the data they actually went out and won. So you can think of us as Moneyball for CIOs.”

Pluralsight One is a pledge by the company to dedicate at least 1% of its resources to help learning, technology and philanthropy
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At a time where the dominant business and political discourse often seems to assume that doing good is diametrically opposed to doing well, it’s refreshing to see companies demonstrating this is a actually a false dichotomy. CIOs everywhere have the unique opportunity to do both, addressing their company’s greatest pain points and blockers to growth while at the same time helping to solve the broader societal issues caused by inequality. All it takes is a concerted and proactive strategy that acknowledges the problem, and a strong commitment towards executing it in the long term.

At a time where the dominant business and political discourse seems to assume that doing good is diametrically opposed to doing well, it’s refreshing to see companies demonstrating this is a false dichotomy
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This article was originally published on IDG Connect Website

IDG Contributor Network: How doing good can help CIOs do better https://t.co/xnaLsnUczg

— CIO.com (@CIOonline) September 26, 2017

To find out how to leverage VR/AR/MR in your enterprise, Tech Trends offers bespoke Virtual Reality Consultancy support

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio and @techtrends_tech on Twitter.

The post Closing the Digital Skills Gap and Bridging the Opportunity Divide appeared first on Tech Trends.

Technology learning platform Pluralsight launches its first in-person conference with Michelle Obama headlining.

From 19th to the 21st September #TechTrends will be at #PluralsightLIVE in Salt Lake City
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Quite frankly, you had us at Michelle Obama. I won’t hide my admiration for the former US First Lady. I believe she is a beacon of intelligence, grace, assertiveness and compassion which provides the best possible role model for young girls to look up to, specially since she credits education for helping her become who she is, and to achieve what she has. This TED talk pretty much sums it up and is well worth a watch, if you can bear the waves of regret and nostalgia that will inevitably wash over you…

Former First Lady Michelle Obama is a champion for education and skills
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#PluralsightLIVE is about the interplay of technology and skills
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The Pluralsight Live conference is all about the interplay between cutting-edge technology and skills, which is why it makes sense that Mrs Obama will be making an appearance, since she is passionate about empowering people from all walks of life through education.

Role model. Education advocate. We’re honored that former First Lady Michelle Obama is headlining #PluralsightLIVE. https://t.co/DMVuYpv048 pic.twitter.com/3T5IjHJPLP

— Pluralsight (@pluralsight) August 17, 2017

It is also about what skills we will need to evolve to cope in this evolving digital world we’re building, and how to get the most value from the investment we make in learning and up-skilling our workforce. To explore these themes Pluralsight has drafted in high-profile experts on areas such as data science, cloud, mobile and cyber security from companies like Slack, Cerner, Adobe, Microsoft, Overflow and Nasdaq as well as all the best talent from its own team. You can check out the full line-up of speakers here.

“Where leaders, technologists and visionaries collide. Out from behind the computer screens, lines of code, tangled cords and clogged inboxes is a community breathing life into fresh ideas. They push the boundaries of what’s possible, inspire one another, and share it with the world. They’re innovators, change-makers, mentors and friends.”

Some of the sessions we’re looking forward to attending include “A Field Guide for Male Allies,” which will talk about strategies for improving diversity in the workplace. This is of course more sorely needed than ever after the recent Google Memo controversy. Others include “prepping your team for the modern web,” “how to create a culture of innovation,” and “implementing transformative learning”. As a writer, though, I’m a sucker for a catchy title so my absolute favourite has to be this one:

From Han Solo to Jean-Luc Picard: A Nerd’s Guide to Technical Leadership & Career Growth

So, if you’re going to be around Salt Lake City from the 19^th to the 21^st September, do say hello, or follow the live action on Twitter @alicebonasio or @techtrends_tech with hashtag #PluralsightLIVE

The post Tech Trends at #PluralsightLIVE 2017 appeared first on Tech Trends.