LLM Engineering: Customisation and Integration

Why choose this course?

For you:

Master advanced LLM techniques to lead AI initiatives
Weekend sessions - balance learning with work commitments
Learn from industry experts in advanced LLM engineering
Develop enterprise-grade LLM applications for your portfolio
Earn an advanced certification from Cambridge Spark
Connect with high-level peers in the AI industry
Get £50 off with a referral from a colleague

For your team:

Equip your team with cutting-edge LLM engineering skills
Accelerate AI project delivery and innovation
Enhance team capabilities in LLM customisation and integration
See direct business impact from applied learning projects
Receive tailored guidance on implementing LLMs in your organisation
Align advanced AI skills with strategic business objectives
For 10+ employees, explore our enterprise solutions

What will I learn?

Our curriculum is developed by our leading faculty, composed of data scientists in leading industry positions and academics from some of the top universities in the world.

We take a modular approach to how we offer our curriculum. This course includes all of the below modules with each module being a mix of e-learning content, such as Jupyter notebooks and instructional videos, as well as live workshops.

We continuously update the modules and reiterate to incorporate the latest skills.

Detailed curriculum

Module 1: States and Data

Get an overview of how we can keep track of internal states, and chat history when working with LLMs.

Concepts:

Managing conversation states – including maintaining context in LangChain and different memory types.
Integrating databases with LLMs – including security and privacy.

Hands-on Project: Build a functional chatbot with an integrated database.

Module 2: RAG and Working with Documents

How can we build LLMs that work with documents? In this module, we explore core concepts like semantic similarity, vector storage and Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) to help us do that.

Concepts:

Document stuffing – including loading documents using PyMuPDF, and using LangChain document methods
Embeddings – including the concept of semantic similarity, and an overview of embedding models offered by different providers.
Vector stores – an overview of various vector stores like FAISS, Chroma and Pinecone.
Evaluation and monitoring – LLM evaluation metrics (including statistical scorers like ROUGE and BLEU, and frameworks like G-Eval), RAGAS, different kinds of drift, question-context pair evaluation, and mitigating hallucinations.
Knowledge graphs

Hands-on Project: Generate running summaries on documents and integrate a chatbot to ask questions about the documents.

Module 3: Agents

In situations where we need to go beyond simply retrieving information, and where we need sequential reasoning, and planning for example, LLM agents can help. This module introduces the concept of agents, the components of an agent system, and gives an overview of the tools we can use.

Concepts:

Introduction to Agents
An overview of tools – both tools available through LangChain and LlamaIndex, and custom tools.

Hands-on Project: Build a question-answering agent.

Module 4: Fine Tuning

In some cases, where application requirements are unique, general-purpose models may not be effective enough, and we may need to fine tune them to make them more specialised. This module explores fine tuning, giving an overview of fine tuning methods for when they are appropriate, and showcasing frameworks and best practices.

Concepts:

Overview of fine tuning methods – concepts include instruction tuning, SFT, LoRa, and PEFT.
Frameworks and best practices – including frameworks like Hugging Face and NeMo, fine tuning OpenAI models, and distributed fine tuning.

Hands-on Project: Fine tune GPT-2.

What makes our programme special?

We deliver all of our programmes live, in a virtual environment, allowing you to learn flexibly around your other commitments. EDUKATE.AI, our online learning platform, gives you a sandbox environment to practice your skills, providing immediate feedback on industry-simulated assignments. We believe that the gold standard for online delivery is to offer a mix of experiential learning, technical mentorship and peer support.

Real-World Practice for Accelerated Impact

EDUKATE.AI provides a sandbox environment where you can practice new skills on real assignments. This accelerates the impact you can make in your workplace, allowing you to immediately apply what you've learned.

EDUKATE.AI

Our online learning platform gives you a seamless learning experience with in-browser access to course slides, workshop recordings, quizzes and practical assignments. Immediate feedback helps you gauge your progress effectively.

Expert Curriculum

Our curriculum develops the skills to thrive in a data-driven profession. You'll learn the latest concepts and tools essential to analysing data to obtain actionable insights.

Flexible Fully Online Learning

Our programme is fully online, providing maximum flexibility for you and your employer alike. This means that you can access your content from anywhere, with no set up or installation of EDUKATE.AI required.

Community

Joining our programme means becoming part of a thriving community of thousands of data professionals. You have the opportunity to tap into this rich network of peers and alumni and benefit from the expertise and experience of others in the field.

Speak to the admissions team

Fill out the following form and we’ll contact you within one business day to discuss and answer any questions you have about the programme. We look forward to speaking with you.

Ready to level up your LLM skills? Whether you're set to enroll or have questions, our admissions team is here to guide you.

Are you new to LLMs? Start with our foundational course: LLMs Foundations for Practitioners.

Fill in the form below to chat with an advisor now and secure your place.

FAQs

What support will I have access to throughout the course?

Apart from instructor guidance within the workshops themselves, you'll benefit from peer interaction and support within the online learning platform EDUKATE.AI.

How will I learn?

We take a blended approach to delivering our curriculum, which means you'll learn through a combination of live, instructor-led interactive workshops, and self-led practical assignments where you get to put the concepts that you learned to practice.

Is this course eligible for public funding?

No, this course is instead funded directly by the learners themselves or their employers.

In funding the course directly, you benefit from a curriculum designed with specific learning outcomes achieved over a shorter learning period and without the restrictions attached to some publicly funded options.

Please consider our longer Apprenticeships or Skills Bootcamps if you're interested in government-funded programmes.

How long does the course take to complete?

The course includes 4 weekly live workshops of 3.5hours spread over 4 weeks. Live workshops are delivered on Saturdays morning.

What if I can't attend one or more live sessions?

You are free to attend the live sessions at will. Recordings will be available on the learning platform EDUKATE to access throughout the course. But we highly recommend attending all live sessions to get the most out of the course.

What technology or equipment will I need to participate in this course?

You will need a web browser on your computer to access our learning platform, EDUKATE.AI, which hosts all our content.