Level up your coding game with GitHub Copilot Free and Microsoft courses

Happy New Year from Lumify Work!

Some of you may have been caught up in the holiday festivities and missed the announcement. Last December, GitHub launched the free tier of GitHub Copilot, the innovative AI coding assistant driven by ChatGPT. It's an excellent gift for developers and definitely a good addition to everyone's toolbelt in 2025.

The GitHub Copilot free tier can empower developers to write better code and make projects more efficient. Combined with Microsoft training courses in the Philippines through Lumify Work, you have the tools and the skills to address common pain points like Code Familiarity, Repetitive Tasks, Documentation and more.

The big announcement on GitHub Copilot Free

GitHub prides itself in its history of offering free products and services to developers. In this spirit, it welcomed the new year with the launch of GitHub Copilot Free.

This makes AI development more accessible and aims to empower its community.

Speaking of communities, in the same announcement, their team shared that they reached a milestone of 150 million global developers on GitHub.

What is GitHub Copilot?

GitHub Copilot is an AI-powered coding assistant developed by GitHub and OpenAI. The GitHub team designed it to help developers by suggesting code snippets and autocompleting code as they type. Here are some key features:

• Code Completion - It can help you autocomplete lines or blocks of code based on what you're writing.

• Natural Language Processing - Using plain language, you can generate, debug, or explain code effortlessly.

• Multi-language Support - It works with various programming languages, including Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, Ruby, and Go.

• Integration - You can link it to popular development environments like Visual Studio (VS) Code, Visual Studio, Neovim, and JetBrains IDEs.

GitHub Copilot aims to make coding faster and more efficient by reducing the time spent writing repetitive code and navigating unfamiliar coding frameworks.

What's included in the GitHub Copilot Free tier?

To access the features of the free tier, you need to sign in with your personal GitHub account.

• Monthly usage limits - Access up to 2,000 code completions and 50 chat messages, refreshed every 30 days.

• Multi-file editing - You can simultaneously update multiple files within a project.

• Natural language commands - You can generate, debug, or explain code effortlessly using plain language.

• AI-powered assistance - It uses advanced models for precise, context-aware coding support.

While the free tier has usage limits, it offers an accessible way for developers to explore AI-powered coding assistance and streamline their workflows. This is ideal for smaller projects and specific coding tasks.

GitHub Copilot is now automatically integrated into VS Code. This reduces the steps for installing or setting up. You can access this through two intuitive interfaces:

• “Ask Copilot” - This conversational interface lets you ask the AI using natural language queries and get detailed responses.

• “Edit with Copilot” - Get code suggestions while you work.

With GitHub Copilot and VS Code, developers can focus on their projects without the many, little technical issues.

Beyond basic code generation, the GitHub Copilot free tier offers advanced features that address common challenges in software development, such as analysing the context of the whole project, renaming variables and documenting updates.

In addition to the VS Code integration, GitHub Copilot has tools for working in various development environments. One of them is terminal-based command execution, which helps you manage tasks directly from the command line. Another is a web interface for those who prefer working outside VS Code. These tools ensure flexibility for different development workflows.

GitHub CoPilot Free allows you to use Anthropic's Claude 3.5 Sonnet or OpenAI's GPT-4o model. These options let you ask a coding question, explain existing code, or find a bug. You can execute edits across multiple files. You can access Copilot’s third-party agents or build your own extension, too.

Learn to maximise GitHub Copilot with Microsoft courses

Microsoft and Lumify Work offer several training modules to help learn to how to use GitHub Copilot to its fullest, even with the free tier.

Some are one-day courses that prepare you for an Applied Skills credential. Microsoft Applied Skills is a NEW, verifiable credential that validates targeted skills for implementing critical projects aligned with business goals and objectives.

The other courses below are 3–5 days long, leading to Advanced Role-based (ARB) Microsoft Certifications for GitHub Copilot students.

• Microsoft AZ-2007 - Accelerate App Development by using GitHub Copilot - Learn how to accelerate app development using GitHub Copilot and GitHub Copilot Chat in a VS Code environment. Get insights on generating project documentation and creating unit tests.

• Microsoft AZ-2006 - Automate Azure Load Testing by using GitHub - Learn how to create workflows on GitHub, create load tests in Azure, and use GitHub Actions for Azure to initiate load tests on deployments.

• Microsoft AZ-2008 - DevOps Foundations: The Core Principles and Practices - Explore DevOps practices using GitHub. Get tips on improving collaboration, agility, continuous integration, delivery, automation, and operational excellence throughout your application lifecycle.

• Microsoft AZ-204T00 - Developing Solutions for Microsoft Azure - Learn how to create end-to-end solutions in Microsoft Azure. Get insights on integrations, storage and security.

• Microsoft AZ-400T00 - Designing and Implementing Microsoft DevOps Solutions - Understand how to design and implement DevOps processes and practices. Learn how to scale Git for an enterprise by reducing repetitive tasks and consolidating artefacts.

Lumify Work can help you map out resources to learn how to use GitHub Copilot effectively.

Why access Microsoft courses for GitHub Copilot?

You can use this gift from GitHub by levelling up your skills with an aligned Microsoft training course in the Philippines from Lumify Work. Beyond understanding the features, you will need a knowledge of DevOps practices to address common pain points such as:

• Code Familiarity - Sometimes, developers need to fix code built by other teams. GitHub Copilot can help developers understand unfamiliar code by providing explanations and suggestions, including those for legacy or new codebases.

• Repetitive Tasks - Small-scale coding projects involve a few repetitive tasks. But these can add up when you need to scale Git for an enterprise. You can learn to reduce repetitive tasks and generate autocompleted snippets and boilerplate code through training.

• Documentation - Some courses demonstrate how GitHub Copilot can assist in generating project documentation, ensuring that code is well-documented and easier to maintain for newer team members. New and current team members can trace the history of a project to understand its context, different iterations and how to troubleshoot issues.

• Unit Testing - Even with GitHub Copilot, testing is a must. It improves code quality, security and reliability.

• Integration and Customisation - The Microsoft training courses we recommend explain integrating GitHub Copilot into various development environments.

• Productivity Measurement - Developers need to track productivity gains from using GitHub Copilot, providing insights into how AI-assisted coding can enhance overall efficiency.

These recommended Microsoft training courses are designed to address common challenges developers face, making it easier to adopt and maximise the benefits of GitHub Copilot.

With GitHub Copilot at your side and increased coding efficiency and accuracy, you can address these developer pain points. This gives ample time to spend on strategic and creative decisions. Lumify can help you through training! Contact us today to discuss your requirements. Download our whitepaper on Microsoft AI Certifications.