Amazon Web Services looks at skilling to grow user base in India

Aims to train thousands of students and professionals in cloud technologies to drive the use of AWS at their workplaces

Amazon Web Services (AWS), the cloud services division of online retail giant Amazon, is looking to train students and professionals in data science, web and software development as it looks at using skilling as a way to grow its user base in the country.

The company wants to train graduates in using its technologies so that they are ready to be absorbed by the industry and moreover driving the use of AWS at their future workplaces. It is especially looking at the programme to tap business from governments after it was empanelled as a certified cloud provider.

“There are tens of thousands of students as well as faculty from higher education institutions in India who have participated in the AWS Educate program. Most popular courses on AWS Educate are in the areas of data sciences, data analytics, software and web development,” said Peter Moore, APAC MD for Public Sector, AWS.

The aim of the programme is to try an align AWS courses with existing curriculum across 30 career pathways as academic courses tend to be out of date when compared to industry standards. The company offers a robust set of tools, resources, and promotional credits for educators as well as students aged 14 and above to accelerate cloud-related learning.

According to the India Skill Report 2018, 48 per cent engineers in India are unemployable while the overall unemployability level due to a dearth of skill sets stands at 54 per cent. NASSCOM has found almost 80 per cent of graduates unemployable. With a rapid movement towards cloud services across sectors and digital skill demand within the IT industry itself, India stands poised to have a surplus of graduates but without the right skills in near future.

While local and global cloud players alike have rushed to be empanelled by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity), Amazon, Microsoft and IBM are leading the pack given their existing engagement with governments overseas.

Analysts say that AWS and Microsoft Azure are leaders in India. While Microsoft is converting a lot of their enterprise client base to cloud, AWS is managing to get new age enterprises and smaller companies to sign up for its services. Both cloud players are also engaging with public sector clientele, to increase their usage.

AWS isn’t the only technology player building it’s own skill set in India. Google and Microsoft have digital training programs in place but one differentiator for AWS is the Job Board which allows certified professionals to find relevant job openings across the industry.  The program offers almost 28 modules across upcoming popular professional areas like cloud architecture, software development, data analytics and web development.

In recent times IBM has announced Advanced Technical Diploma Program, co-created and designed by the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE) covering hardware maintenance, web development, cloud-based development and deployment, analytics and soft skills training. Microsoft is involved with the Ministry of Human resources Development’s pet online learning portal initiative SWAYAM.

More than 1,500 education institutions across the world have adopted AWS Educate. Many educational institutions in India have already adopted AWS Educate across a spread of tier 1 to tier 3 cities. Members of AWS Educate program in India include:  Andhra Pradesh State Skill Development Corporation, CSC (Common Service Centers Scheme), ASM Group of Institutes, International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, and Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati among many other higher education institutions.

“We also see customers doing their own risk and skill assessment of the cloud services before they go in for certification courses through AWS in order to make sure that they get the right skill sets for their employees,” said Moore.

Moore notes that public sector bodies can often take longer to complete the decision making process for procurement of cloud services. To help them make the decisions faster AWS is also involved in security certification and auditing facilities apart from training and skilling for partners as well as customers to boost broader adoption. 

Training for Future

• To train thousands of students and professionals to drive the use of Amazon Web Services (AWS) at workplaces
• AWS aims to increase adoption of its services across public sector clients 
• Many institutes in India part of AWS educate programme
• Microsoft and IBM also collaborating with academia, public sector to build skill sets in the country