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Preparing K-12 and higher education IT leaders for the exponential era

Holyoke Community College to Offer Free 'AI Essentials' Course

A college in Massachusetts is working with the nonprofit CanCode Communities to offer a free 12-week course this summer on the fundamentals of AI including prompt engineering, model structures, ethics and other topics.

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(TNS) — Holyoke Community College and the nonprofit CanCode Communities will partner together to offer a free course on the world of artificial intelligence this summer.

“AI Essentials,” a real-time, instructor-led online training program will run on Tuesdays and Thursdays, June 24 to Sept. 11, from 5:45 to 8:45 p.m. each day.

The class is free for eligible Massachusetts residents.

Over 12 weeks, participants will learn the fundamentals of AI, including prompt engineering, tokenization, embeddings, model structures, retrieval-augmented generation, agency, compute and ethics.

The course emphasizes practical applications, leveraging tools such Google AI Studio, n8n, and OpenWebUI to explore how AI models are built, trained, and deployed in the real world.

“Along the way, participants will gain valuable professional development experience, enhancing their technical skills and problem-solving abilities,” said Arvard Lingham, HCC executive director of community education and corporate training.

Limited seats are available. Laptops and WiFi hotspots for Internet access will be provided for students who need them.

Funding for the program comes from the Western Mass Alliance for Digital Equity.

To sign up for classes, send an email to admissions@albanycancode.org, or go to cancode.org/apply-now and choose “AI Essentials.”

©2025 Advance Local Media LLC. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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