Learning by doing: an insider’s view of the Oracle APEX upskilling program

To learn more about how the training was organized, what the team learned, and what this experience means for our clients, we spoke with Project Manager Marina Matetskaya who recently earned the Oracle Cloud Project Manager Practitioner certification.

Marina, congratulations on your recent Oracle Cloud Project Manager Practitioner certification. What does this achievement mean for you?

Thank you. For me, this certification represents a recognition of my abilities, and proof, even to myself, that I can manage Oracle-based projects following the standards Oracle sets for its partners. It has given me more confidence in my work and in leading initiatives like the Oracle APEX upskilling program.

Let’s talk about the upskilling program. What was the reason for launching it?

The idea actually came quite naturally. First, there has been a significant increase in global interest in adopting low-code platforms, with enterprises leveraging them to accelerate delivery and reduce costs. Second, EffectiveSoft has a strategic partnership with Oracle, and Oracle is now betting on APEX—almost all their internal apps are built on it. This gives us access to vendor support, best practices, and new features. And finally, EffectiveSoft has always focused on talent development, so we took the opportunity to strengthen our internal expertise, gain new skills, and apply them in our projects.

How was the program organized?

We started with preparation work and onboarding. At that stage, I designed an educational program based on Oracle Learning Center materials, including the foundation and professional courses for APEX developers.
Then, we moved on to four weeks of intensive training covering foundations, CRUD apps, user interface/user experience (UI/UX), security, artificial intelligence (AI) integrations, and some advanced labs like shopping apps, social media apps, and REST integrations.
After that, the team had two weeks for a mini-project and demo preparation.

What core skills did the team develop as a result?

By the end of the program, the team demonstrated proficiency in building forms, reports, dashboards, workflows, and AI options usage.​ They also deepened their understanding of low-code best practices, security, and deployment strategies.

Can you share a moment when you realized the program was working?

The turning point was the final project. In just two weeks, two developers managed to build the backbone of an app that can already be used in real life.

What does the demo actually look like?

Our engineers built an Internal Training and Certification Tracker on top of the Oracle Database with APEX pages for the UI and Oracle Workflow for approvals. The app supports three main roles: admins, users, and managers. Admins can manage users, roles, categories, and courses; employees can search for courses, enroll, and track their progress; and managers can see all requests, approve or reject them, and leave comments.

In your view, what does this project tell us about APEX?

With minimal coding effort, our developers were able to quickly deliver a functional solution, demonstrating that APEX is an excellent instrument for rapidly building working applications, especially within the Oracle ecosystem.

What other strengths of APEX stood out most during the program?

In addition to rapid development and minimal coding effort, APEX boasts smooth, native integration with Oracle Database, offers strong SQL and PL/SQL support, and provides consistent UX across different browsers. We also appreciated the availability and clarity of Oracle’s tutorials, documentation, and online training resources, which make it easier for developers to get started and master the platform.

Has working with APEX presented any challenges?

Yes. APEX is not a silver bullet. Our developers noticed that it lacks conflict resolution when merging copies. I believe Oracle is working on this issue, but for now, it remains a challenge. It’s worth noting that due to the deep integration with Oracle Database, the APEX app becomes fully coupled to Oracle’s ecosystem. This can make future migrations to other database platforms or cloud services challenging and require significant refactoring.​

From your perspective, what kind of projects can be built using Oracle APEX?

APEX is good for internal business apps like employee or resource management, data-intensive dashboards and analytics, and CRUD-driven apps. It also works great for rapid prototyping, helping validate ideas quickly, and for small to medium-sized solutions where the scope is clearly defined and doesn’t require massive scalability.

How do you see this initiative evolving further?

The program has already proved its value, and now we aim to scale it. We want to build an internal APEX community that allows developers to share best practices and learn from each other. We also plan advanced training sessions and certifications.

Finally, if a CTO asked you for a short verdict on APEX, what would you say?

Simply put, APEX is a practical lever for speed and cost-efficiency, but it should be used selectively.