If we want Umbraco to grow, we need to start with the next generation
Umbraco Education Program
That is a question going far beyond the Middle East. Umbraco is at very different stages of maturity around the world. In some markets, we have a well-established ecosystem of agencies, developers, customers, and community members. In others, there’s huge potential, but we still have work to do to build awareness and knowledge of the platform.
For our partners in those markets, this matters a lot.
If you’re building your business around Umbraco, you need organizations that know the platform and are confident choosing it. But you also need developers who know how to build with it. And that creates a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem.
Businesses are more likely to choose Umbraco when they know skilled developers are available locally. Developers are more likely to learn Umbraco when they see businesses using it and career opportunities around it.
So how do we get that wheel moving? It’s a tricky question, with many possible answers, but I strongly believe that education can be an important part of the answer.
Getting Umbraco into the classroom
Through the Umbraco Education Program, our partners can work with universities, colleges, and other approved educational institutions to teach students the fundamentals of Umbraco.
Umbraco provides the official Umbraco Fundamentals course materials and Professional Certification for the students, free of charge, and supports the partners along the way. Our partners bring their expertise, real-world experience, and local connections.
It’s a relatively simple idea, but its long-term potential is significant.
Imagine a student studying development in a market where Umbraco isn’t widely known. Without someone introducing them to it, they could easily enter the industry without ever encountering Umbraco.
Now imagine that same student learning Umbraco from an agency that uses it every day. They get hands-on experience, see how it’s used on real projects, and leave with an Umbraco certification.
Suddenly, Umbraco is part of their toolbox.
Perhaps they join an Umbraco Partner. Perhaps they introduce Umbraco to a future employer. Perhaps they become active in the community. Or perhaps they simply become another developer in the market who knows Umbraco and understands what it can do.
All of those outcomes matter.
This isn’t only about giving back
When I speak to partners about initiatives like this, I think it’s important to be open about the business side of it too.
Yes, teaching is a fantastic way to give something back to the developer community. But for an Umbraco Partner, helping Umbraco grow locally is also an investment in the market your own business depends on.
A bigger pool of Umbraco developers makes recruitment easier. More developers knowing Umbraco builds awareness. Greater awareness gives organizations more confidence to consider the platform. And more organizations choosing Umbraco means more opportunities for our partners.
That ecosystem doesn’t appear overnight. We have to build it, and we have to build it together.
Umbraco HQ can provide materials, support, certification, marketing, and many of the things needed to help a market grow. What we don’t have are the local relationships our partners have. We don’t know every university or lecturer. We’re not meeting the next generation of developers in every city. Our partners are.
Don’t just take it from me
We already have partners and educators bringing Umbraco into the classroom. So rather than only telling you why we think it matters, we asked them.
We spoke to some of the people involved about why they decided to teach Umbraco, what they’ve gained from the experience, and the impact they’ve seen for their students, their agencies, and their local Umbraco communities.
What I particularly like about their stories is that this isn’t about creating Umbraco experts overnight. It’s about creating that first connection. For many students, someone simply has to be the person who introduces them to Umbraco.
What could this look like five years from now?
When we’re growing Umbraco in a new market, it’s natural to focus on what’s directly in front of us: the next customer, the next project, the next partner. Those things matter. But so does what we’re building for the longer term.
What does the Umbraco ecosystem in your region look like three, five, or ten years from now?
Are there more agencies? More customers? Local meetups? A larger community? And, crucially, is there a healthy pool of developers who already know Umbraco?
If that’s the future we want, some of the work starts today. One agency teaching one class might feel like a small contribution. Then another agency does it. Another university gets involved. Another group of students discovers Umbraco. Some of those students take that knowledge with them into their first jobs, their next projects, and their local developer communities.
Over time, those individual introductions become something much bigger.
That kind of growth takes time. And there’s no single initiative that will make it happen. But if we want Umbraco to become a more natural choice in more parts of the world, giving the next generation of developers the chance to discover it feels like a very good place to start.