QA

What QA Is

QA is a technology and digital skills training company that sells to organizations and to individual professionals through three routes: instructor-led courses in a classroom or virtual classroom, a self-paced online learning platform, and apprenticeships. Its home page describes it as "Europe's biggest and North America's fastest growing technology and digital training partner with 40 years experience and ~7000 organisations served", and elsewhere says it is "Trusted by 7,000+ organisations globally". The company footer names QA Limited, registered in England with a London office, and QA USA, Inc., "formerly known as Cloud Academy, Inc.", in New York. The self-paced platform's login is still labeled "Self-paced Learning (Cloud Academy)" in the site menu, so learners who knew Cloud Academy will find its library inside the QA Platform.

For this directory, QA belongs to three readers at once: a developer or IT professional studying cloud, software and security; an L&D team buying a training library or a block of classroom courses; and anyone preparing for a vendor certification exam.

How Training Is Delivered

The home page sums up the model as instructor-led, self-paced digital and blended learning, sold as individual courses, subscriptions and apprenticeships. Its "Why choose QA?" section credits "450 QA in-house experts and ~40 technology & certification partners" and offers "Tailored programmatic learning at scale, including custom courses, labs and learning paths." The site menu lists four ways to learn:

• Instructor-led learning, in person or in a virtual classroom, booked course by course (with a MyQA login for booked learners).
• Online Learning Platform, described as "Unlimited access to our tech content".
• Blended Learning Experience, which combines classroom and online study in one program.
• Apprenticeships, to "Upskill teams through apprenticeships", with separate pages for England, Scotland and global apprenticeship solutions.

The menu also lists managed learning services, a Skills Licence, Apprenticeship Levy guidance and ELC-funded training courses.

The Course Catalog

The instructor-led catalog is broad. The home page groups courses into AI, cloud, cyber security, data and office applications, digital marketing, infrastructure and networking, leadership and business skills, product discovery and design, project and program management, service management and software development. Examples include ICAgile Foundations of AI, the BCS Essential Certificate in Artificial Intelligence, AWS Certified AI Practitioner (AIF-C01) preparation, Microsoft Azure Administrator (AZ-104), SC-200 and SC-300 exam preparation, PL-300 Power BI Data Analyst preparation, Google Professional Data Engineer exam preparation, PRINCE2 7 Foundation and Practitioner, APM project qualifications, ITIL 4 and ITIL Foundation (Version 5), Lean Six Sigma Green Belt, and software courses such as Java with Maven, JavaScript fundamentals, ReactJS and test-driven development with JUnit. QA also runs TAP courses for trainers, such as Training Delivery Skills for new trainers.

The home page announces the ITIL 5 launch: "We now offer the ITIL 5 Foundation Certificate as an entry point to the full ITIL 5 suite, with more courses coming soon."

The QA Platform: Self-Paced Library

The QA Platform at platform.qa.com is the self-paced product. Its description says it "integrates our leading hands-on experiences with expertly crafted self-paced course content." The library page lists 3483 results and covers cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP and Alibaba), IT operations (DevOps, FinOps, containers, automation, networking), data (Power BI, SQL, data science and analytics), AI and machine learning, software development (Java, Python, C, C++, Bash, PHP, C#, web, mobile and full stack), security, eCommerce, digital marketing, and leadership, agile and project management. The library says "New content and updates are added every month."

Content types are learning paths, courses, labs, lab challenges, quizzes, exams and job role paths, with role paths for AWS Developer, Azure Solutions Architect, Front End Engineer, Site Reliability Engineer, Python Developer, DevOps Engineer and others. "Smart Skills" offers "Personalized training tailored to your proficiency. Skip content you already know and focus on your gaps," and "AI Assessments" promise personalized insights into strengths and gaps.

The certification paths show the depth. The "AWS Solutions Architect – Associate (SAA-C03)" path runs up to 72 hours and 23 minutes, with 11 courses, 3 lab challenges, 17 exams and 22 hands-on labs. The "AWS Developer – Associate (DVA-C02)" path runs up to 75 hours and 52 minutes, with 11 courses, 3 lab challenges, 12 exams and 30 hands-on labs. The "AZ-900 Exam Preparation: Microsoft Azure Fundamentals" path runs up to 10 hours and 54 minutes, with 12 courses, 6 exams and 3 hands-on labs. Each path names its author, such as Danny Jessee for the AWS paths and Guy Hummel for AZ-900. QA prepares learners for these exams; the certifications are issued by the vendors.

Prices

QA publishes prices for its instructor-led courses, in pounds sterling and excluding VAT. The IT courses page lists, among others:

• CompTIA Network+ (5 days, virtual classroom): from £3,585 ex VAT
• Implementing and Administering Cisco Solutions: from £2,980 ex VAT
• Microsoft Azure Administrator (AZ-104): from £3,205 ex VAT
• ITIL 4 Foundation: from £1,995 ex VAT
• Microsoft Power Automate Essentials: £1,930 ex VAT
• Mastering Power Apps: £4,050 ex VAT
• Manage Microsoft Teams (MS-700): £3,140 ex VAT
• Microsoft Excel Intermediate: £1,195 ex VAT
• Mastering SharePoint Online Design, Architecture and Best Practice Administration: £5,635 ex VAT

For the online platform, the IT courses page advertises "Unlimited learning at an unmatched price" and "Get unlimited access to all our tech content, including Cloud, AI, Security, hands-on labs and more, under our lowest-priced licence yet." The platform's header has "Pricing & Plans", "Request a demo" and "Start Free Trial" links, but the platform price itself does not appear on the IT courses page or the library page.

Some government-only courses on the site are restricted to listed UK public bodies, and a booking under an unlisted organization is canceled and refunded.

Apprenticeships and Customers

Apprenticeships are a large part of QA's business. The home page reports an Ofsted rating for its apprenticeship provision and says QA is an approved provider for new AI Leadership apprenticeship units. Apprenticeship programs listed on the home page include Digital and AI Support Level 3, AI & Automation Specialist Level 4, Databricks Engineer Level 5, NVIDIA AI Engineer Level 6, cyber security roles at Level 4, and BSc (Hons) degrees in Digital Technology Solutions and Project Management. Individuals looking for an apprenticeship role can search vacancies on QA's apprenticeship platform.

Case studies on the home page include "How Costa Coffee built a data dream team thanks to QA Apprenticeships", "We helped NHS achieve Service Desk Institute (SDI) certification", and "QA Talent boosts Cognizant's capability and resources". The site menu lists the Ministry of Justice, Apple and NHS England among its global customers.

Who QA Suits

QA suits organizations, especially in the UK, that want one supplier for classroom courses, a self-paced tech library with labs and exam paths, and apprenticeships. L&D teams can book priced courses one at a time or license the platform for unlimited access. Individual IT professionals preparing for AWS, Azure, CompTIA, ITIL or PRINCE2 exams can buy a single course or use the platform's certification paths with practice exams and hands-on labs. Learners who want low-cost, single-subject study will find the classroom prices aimed at employer budgets, so the platform trial is the better starting point.