00:00All right, so around two and a half years ago, I remember searching on the internet trying to
00:04figure out how to start my own cloud learning journey. At the time, I barely knew anything
00:08about the cloud and it seemed like for every website I went on, people were recommending a
00:12different cloud course. It was really confusing for me and what ended up happening was I jumped
00:17from resource to resource trying to figure out which one to use. I did eventually find some
00:22amazing courses to learn AWS but all that googling probably wasn't the best use of my time.
00:27Fast forward to today, I've gotten five AWS certifications, I've spent two years at AWS
00:33working as a solutions architect and now I run this YouTube channel where I help people build
00:37their technical skills and learn a job in the cloud. And so in this video, I'm going to share
00:41with you the best free AWS cloud courses I recommend for beginners. These resources have
00:46been really useful for me and by sharing them with you, I want to help you save some time and
00:51money
00:51when it comes to choosing what course you should use. If you find this type of content helpful,
00:55please give this video a like and with that being said, let's jump straight into resource number
00:59one. So the first free AWS cloud course I'd recommend is this six-hour cloud practitioner
01:05essentials course. This course is part of AWS skill builder which is a platform designed by AWS for cloud
01:11learners. It's a foundational level course for beginners and helps you prepare for the AWS cloud
01:16practitioner exam. In this course, you'll learn about AWS cloud concepts, the core AWS services and other
01:22cloud topics like security and pricing. So whether or not you end up paying the $100 USD to sit the
01:28exam,
01:28the course itself provides you with a great foundational understanding of AWS cloud. And another
01:33reason I'd recommend this course is because it's created by AWS themselves. If AWS makes any major
01:38changes to the cloud offerings, then they'll update the courses to reflect those changes. AWS skill
01:44builder also has a bunch of other free courses like this mini course that extends the different job
01:48roles available in the cloud. They do also have hands-on labs where they provide you with a sandbox
01:53environment, but that's only offered in their paid subscription plan. If you're learning AWS and haven't
01:58started using AWS skill builder, I'd highly recommend signing up to a free account and trying out their
02:03courses. The next resource I'd recommend is Udemy courses. Many people don't know this, but Udemy doesn't
02:09just have paid courses. They actually have an entire library of free courses and tutorials. With free
02:15courses, they don't provide a certificate or instructor support, but you'll be able to access the online video
02:20content for free. You can see here that they have an AWS zero to hero course, a cloud computing with
02:25AWS
02:26course, and even a career focused course to help you start your career with AWS. All three of these are
02:31completely free and there are many more AWS courses available that don't cost you anything. I'll leave links down
02:37below to some of these free Udemy courses if you'd like to check them out. At this point, you might
02:41be
02:41like, Lucy, I'm kind of sick of watching video courses. Is there a more engaging way to learn? If
02:47you're in that situation, I'd recommend AWS CloudQuest. It's pretty much an online game that teaches you
02:52about AWS Cloud, but what's really good about CloudQuest is that it helps you build skills through
02:57hands-on exercises and activities where you actually get to work with AWS services. So as a player, you enter
03:03a
03:03virtual city and choose a role like Solutions Architect, and you complete missions tailored
03:08towards the role. And by the end of it, you receive a digital badge that you can showcase on LinkedIn.
03:13I haven't played CloudQuest myself because it didn't exist back then around two years ago when I first
03:19started learning cloud, but my 16 year old sister has and she really enjoyed it and learnt a lot from
03:23the game. There are also some other ways you can learn AWS without having to watch video courses.
03:28And one of them is by doing AWS workshops and hands-on labs. As I've mentioned in many of my
03:33previous videos, I really believe that the best way to learn cloud computing is by playing around
03:38with the services. If you're new to AWS Cloud, make sure you check out these two websites that
03:43feature over a hundred step-by-step guided AWS tutorials. A common question I get asked is,
03:48Lucy, I know many of these tutorials are available for free, but does it cost anything for me to use
03:54AWS services? The good news is, AWS does have a free tier for certain services, so you can experiment
03:59and learn without incurring a high cost. But you do have to be aware of what's free and what isn't,
04:04so make sure you take a look at this page before you start building things in your AWS console.
04:08Before we move on to the next free course, I'd like to take a moment to tell you about today's
04:12video
04:12sponsor, Guardio. Because so much of our lives are online these days, it's important to know that
04:17super common cyber scams can be accessed through our browsers and threaten our security and information.
04:22And that's where Guardio comes in. It's an easy-to-use browser extension that acts as an
04:27online bodyguard protecting users as they browse online. It detects and blocks scams before they
04:32reach your browser to make sure you don't fall victim to cybercrimes. So what does Guardio actually
04:37do? It identifies and blocks phishing attacks, malicious downloads and websites. It also removes
04:43pop-ups and ads that may lead to scams. And it helps protect your online identity and sensitive data.
04:48Here's a quick demo of how Guardio works. Download the extension, sign up for an account,
04:53and then you'll be able to scan your device for any existing risks or data leaks. After your scan,
04:58you can start a seven-day free trial, remove threats and have real-time 24-7 protection. By the way,
05:04one account includes seven members, so you can make sure everyone in your family is safe online. Guardio
05:09isn't just another Chrome extension. It's featured by Google and has over a million users. So to see Guardio in
05:16action and scan your browser for free, head to guard.io forward slash techwithlucy. Now let's get back to
05:22the video. Another free course I'd recommend is this AWS Cloud Practitioner Certification course taught
05:28by Andrew Brown on the free Code Camp YouTube channel. If you don't want to sign up for any
05:32accounts and just want to start learning cloud straight away, then I'd suggest watching this 13-hour
05:37course directly through YouTube. I've watched the entire course end-to-end back when I was first starting
05:42to learn cloud, and what I liked about it was that there were a lot of demos and diagrams that
05:46made it easier
05:46for me to understand new cloud concepts. The final resource I'd like to share is free live training provided by
05:52AWS.
05:53This is something I haven't seen shared around very much, but AWS actually provides instructor-led training
05:59completely for free. Anyone can attend and they have cloud training days as well as exam readiness sessions to help
06:05you pass
06:05AWS certification exams. For example, you can see that they have this AWS Cloud Practitioner Essentials Day that's five hours
06:12long
06:12and provides a detailed overview of cloud concepts, AWS services, security, architecture, pricing, and support.
06:20So if you're looking for free training, I'll leave a link down below to the AWS Training and Certifications events
06:25page.
06:26Okay, so now that I've shared with you the top three resources to learn AWS, I'd highly recommend watching this
06:32AWS
06:32AWS Certification Roadmap video where I share a step-by-step roadmap on how you can start your AWS Certification
06:38journey.
