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AWS Sets Goal To Train 29 Million People on Cloud by 2025
With demand for cloud computing skills on the rise, Amazon Web Services (AWS) has unveiled a plan to provide free cloud training to millions of people around the world.
The initiative was detailed by Teresa Carlson, head of Worldwide Public Sector at AWS, during the ongoing virtual re:Invent conference. It builds on AWS' existing commitment, announced last year, to put $700 million into "upskilling" 100,000 Amazon employees -- about a third of its U.S. workforce.
Under the new plan described by Carlson, AWS plans to invest "hundreds of millions of dollars" to bring its cloud training programs to 29 million people "in more than 200 countries and territories" by 2025.
Carlson outlined a few ways AWS intends to deliver on its promise. First, it plans to expand its existing teaching and training portals, AWS Training and Certification (aimed at IT pros) and AWS Educate (aimed at students and educators). These two portals already offer more than 500 courses, labs and training sessions at no cost, according to Carlson, but AWS plans to develop more in the coming years.
AWS also plans to expand the availability of its re/Start program to "underrepresented communities," according to Carlson. AWS re/Start is aimed helping at "unemployed or underemployed individuals" learn the skills required to qualify for entry-level cloud jobs. AWS re/Start courses are intensive, taking place multiple days a week, for 12 weeks, in a classroom setting. AWS also coaches participants on resume-writing and interviewing, as well as connects them to potential employers.
Currently, re/Start is available in 25 cities and 12 countries. The planned expansion would double the number of cities by next year, Carlson said, as well as improve the diversity of the program's students.
Finally, Carlson said AWS will pilot new training programs similar to its two-day AWS Fiber Optic Fusion Splicing Certificate program and the AWS Machine Learning University.
"Amazon focuses on building innovative programs that have a lasting, positive impact for the communities in which we operate, and designing STEM and skills training programs are central to this approach," Carlson said in a prepared statement. "We intend to continue increasing access to skills training to give anyone who wants to further their cloud skills the tools to achieve this."