Dive Brief:

• AWS launched a 12-course cloud skills training program designed to prepare learners for entry-level cloud technologist roles in as little as one year, the company announced Tuesday.
• The AWS Cloud Institute curriculum covers proficiencies in cloud and developer fundamentals, architecting on AWS, databases, analytics, networking, security, Python coding and ML and AI tools, including the company’s generative AI-enabled developer tool, Amazon CodeWhisperer.
• Accenture, American Family Insurance and other AWS customers and partners helped shape the program. “We’ve been working with transportation customers, banking customers, consultant customers and having them help us develop these real-world issues and problems that our learners can work on and build solutions around,” said Kevin Kelly, director of the new institute.

Dive Insight:

Sourcing tech talent remains a pain point for many CIOs, as enterprises push modernization. Despite a wave of tech-sector layoffs earlier this year and monthly unemployment rate fluctuations, demand continues to exceed the existing pool of IT professionals.

The problem is particularly acute in cloud, a category that encompasses core IT functions, including cyber, database management, networking and infrastructure architecture.

AWS estimates there are as many as five million unfilled cloud positions, based on an internal study the hyperscaler commissioned, Kelly said.

Along with security and controlling spend, a lack of cloud expertise was a top challenge for enterprises last year, according to a Flexera report. Accenture found that talent gaps were an obstacle to core systems migration in the financial sector earlier this year.

Click for full article