In 2024-25, HKU Horizons Office is partnering with TalentLabs to offer:
1. PwC x TalentLabs Hacker Experience Program
(Internship/Full-time Offer Linked)
Introduction
Cybersecurity is a booming industry with a lot of learning and growth opportunities, but most students (including CS major students) would not have opportunities to explore the field of cybersecurity. The program is designed to provide students with a strong foundational training in cybersecurity and hands-on experience in ethical hacking. Successful students from this program could earn an internship or a full time position with PwC.
Program Content
Stage 1: PwC DarkLab Academy Training
In this first stage, students will be going through an online training program on cybersecurity and ethical hacking. The trainers from PwC would showcase how to perform security checks on systems and how to perform ethical hacking in their day-to-day job. After this training, students should have an understanding of cybersecurity and be competent in using various cybersecurity tools in a professional setting.
The training would be a combination of self-paced videos, weekly live mentoring sessions and 1-to-1 on-demand consultation sessions. They will get access to industry practitioners who can provide insights on the industry.
Stage 2: Capture the Flag Competition
Capture the Flag (CTF) competitions are competitions in which participants, either individually or as part of a team, are challenged to find and exploit vulnerabilities in a system to capture a “flag” or piece of information. After the training, students will be forming teams in joining an internal CTF competition and putting their knowledge into practice.
Stage 3: Assessment for Internship
All participants of this program will be participating in a final assessment designed by PwC. The assessment will be in a game setup where students will be trying to hack into 3 designated computers. Students will need to produce a written report in 24 hours. Students who meet a passing score would be guaranteed a paid internship or full time offer in 2025 Summer.
Program Duration
Stage 1: 10 weeks (part-time, self-paced)
Stage 2: 2 days
Stage 3: 2 days
Fee
HK$10,000 per student ($8,000 to be subsidized by HKU Horizons Office, and $2,000 to be paid by student)
Target Students
STEM major students in year 3 or 4
2. AWS x TalentLabs Digital Transformation Experience Program
Introduction
Cloud Technologies is no doubt the future of all industries. Companies of all sizes are moving to the cloud and this is accelerated by the trend of AI adoption. Getting knowledge in Cloud Technologies would be super beneficial to students. This program is co-offered with AWS to provide students with exposure to the latest Cloud and AI technologies as well as experiencing the digital transformation journey of an organization.
The program would use virtual tools to simulate a work environment, and students would play the role of both a CTO and team members in the experiences. Throughout the process, students would not only learn all the necessary skills in Cloud Technologies, but also gain valuable experiences in the digital transformation process.
Program Content
Part 1: AWS Skill Builder Online Interactive Training
AWS Skill Builder is an online platform developed by AWS for providing interactive learning experiences for students. Students will be assigned to different paths based on their experiences and personal interests. The whole experience would be interactive in that they try out all the innovative features on AWS Cloud.
TalentLabs would also provide on-demand 1-to-1 mentoring services to resolve their challenges in the process of learning.
Learning Paths:
– Cloud Practitioner
– Generative AI
– Data Analytics
Part 2: Virtual Work Experiences
Students who completed the training in Part 1 would be joining this exciting virtual work
experience. It is an interactive learning experience that teaches participants how to build cloud solutions for a specific industry. They can choose an industry—Financial Services, Healthcare, Manufacturing and Automotive, and take over a virtual organization to transform it into an industry leader.
The experiences would guide students step-by-step through the process and let them
experience how cloud computing is transforming different industries. They would play a role of digital transformation leader in the company and play a pivotal role in the process. This is an exceptional opportunity for students to put themselves into a leadership role and experience the various tradeoffs as a leader.
Part 3: AWS Jam Day
Students would be forming teams to participate in this AWS Jam Day. They would be put into real-world scenarios and solve team-based challenges. Different from part 2, they would be playing a role of collaborative team members to solve day-to-day challenges that a digital organization would be facing. Combining Part 2 and 3, students would have an holistic view on how to transform an organization into a digital-first organization from the perspective of both a leader and team members. Winners from this AWS Jam would receive exclusive AWS swags.
Part 4: Certification
After all the training and hardwork, it’s time to turn the efforts into certifications. All the participants would be eligible to participate in an AWS certification exam of their choice. After completing the exam, they would receive a globally recognized certification issued by AWS.
Program Duration
Part 1: For whole semester (self-paced and online during the semester)
Part 2: Virtual Work Experiences (32 hours)
Part 3: AWS Jam Day (1 day)
Part 4: Certification (1 day, to be chosen by individual students within 180 days completion of Parts 1-3)
Fee
HK$8,000 per student ($6,400 to be subsidized by HKU Horizons Office, and $1,600 to be paid by student)
Target Students
STEM major students.
Commencement of Program:
October 14, 2024
Application
Interested STEM major students are invited to submit an online application before September 22, 2024 (12 midnight).
*TalentLabs is a cross-border tech career platform backed by Cyberport, offering practical technology courses and in partnership with technology companies such as Google, Grab, Tencent and HP, collaborative internships as pre-employment training for students.