Former GPU guy here. Yeah, that's exactly what I was going to suggest too, with emphasis on #2 and #3. What kind of jobs are they trying to apply for? Is it really CUDA that they need to be familiar with, or CUDA-based libraries like cuDNN, cuBLAS, cuFFT, etc?
Understanding the fundamentals of parallel programming comes first, IMO.
Understanding the fundamentals of parallel programming comes first, IMO.