Talend, a global leader in cloud and big data integration solutions, today announced new courses designed to help advance developers' skills with cutting-edge cloud and big data technologies. Available immediately, the new courses are based on practical exercises that maximize employees' expertise with tools for data mapping and data preparation in the cloud. The new courses demonstrate Talend's commitment to cultivating a skilled workforce that will thrive in the new information age and help further companies' digital transformation initiatives.

"Keeping pace with modern technologies is challenging for companies of all sizes. While innovation fuels powerful business opportunities, it also creates skills gaps in areas such as cloud and big data--where the demand for skilled workers is especially high," said Carrie Anderson, VP of Enablement at Talend. "Data-driven companies need to develop their workforce to keep pace with rapidly evolving market needs and emerging technologies. Thus, training courses that give developers hands-on experience with the latest cloud and big data tools help give companies a competitive advantage."

There are currently over 600,000 open computing jobs across the U.S., but only roughly 43,000-or seven percent-of the population is qualified to fill those roles¹. The National Federation of Independent Business found that as of first-quarter 2017, 45 percent of small businesses reported they were unable to find qualified applicants to fill job openings. If these types of jobs go unfilled, businesses will expand more slowly, and U.S. growth will be impacted.

Critical additions to the Talend training portfolio include Data Preparation Cloud, and two advanced Talend Data Mapper courses, to help developers work with complex hierarchical data. Talend Data Mapper Advanced-Spark trains participants to leverage the speed of Spark processing on hierarchical data. Talend Data Mapper Advanced-HL7 teaches participants how to process data using the Health Level Seven standard. HL7 is used in the exchange, integration, sharing, and retrieval of electronic health information between doctor's offices, hospitals, insurance companies, and laboratories that support the delivery and evaluation of health services.

Healthcare provider organizations have several different computer systems used for a broad range of functions from billing records to tracking patient lab results. These systems are required to communicate with one another to exchange patient information. HL7 helps ensure that all data or messages transferred from one system to another are completed correctly, free of errors and while keeping patient information secure.

Advantages of Talend's training courses include:

• A live software environment that gives developers hands-on exercises for real-world scenarios
• The option for instruction via self-paced materials or by expert instructors either online or in a classroom
• Emphasis on the most significant tasks required by different roles
• Abundant practice, providing faster development of necessary industry skills
• A curriculum designed specifically for data analysts

Talend witnessed a 49 percent increase in the number of course registrants between 2015 and 2016, as customers and partners work to scale vital cloud and big data skills in their workforce. Specifically, Talend partners have more than doubled their investment in either utilizing or incorporating our world-class big data and cloud curriculum into their internal career development portals, to enhance consultants' skills to meet dynamic market requirements.

Talend's courses are purposely designed with minimal pre-requisites, to efficiently train busy professionals and help companies to upskill larger numbers of today's technology workforce. A complete list of Talend's latest instructional courses can be found here: https://www.talend.com/services/training/catalog/.