Slowly but surely, Amazon’s cloud storage business AWS has been expanding into a range of cloud services for people not to simply host their business or app with AWS, but also to use the platform for productivity and their own work purposes, as well. Today brings the latest installment in that story: AWS launched re:Start, a new portal for IT skills training, with special emphasis on cloud computing, and job placement for young adults and military vets and their spouses, which Amazon has built in partnership with the UK’s Ministry of Defence, the Prince’s Trust, and QA Consulting.
The new service was announced earlier today during an event in London, and according to the company, will start its first intake on March 27 of this year. As described by AWS on its website:
re:Start is a training and job placement programme, launched by Amazon Web Services, for the UK to educate young adults as well as military veterans, reservists, and their spouses, on the latest software development and cloud computing technologies.
Skills will feature technical training classes; cloud computing and how to architect, design, and develop cloud-based applications using AWS; how to set up new cloud environments; and to build apps in languages like Python.
The training will be constructed with companies like QA Consulting and the Micro:bit Foundation (the micro:bit is a learn-to-code device from the BBC, and there will be content made for it); and for work placements, the program borrows from AWS’s Partner Network as well as customers of the AWS platform (which makes for a sizeable list, since AWS is one of the go-to cloud services companies globally)
According to the company, it will initially offer work placements for 1,000 people via re:Start. Some of the organizations that will be offering placements include accounting company Sage, insurance company Direct Line and lending platform Funding Circle. This latest chapter of UK expansion follows almost exactly a month after AWS opened its first data center in the country, in London.
The new site also raises another point worth noting: it paves the way for a new area of competition between Amazon and Microsoft, this time the area of online education. This is already an area where Microsoft is active. Last year, Microsoft acquired LinkedIn, and LinkedIn has been building up its own platform for skills training (through its Lynda acquisition) and linking online, LinkedIn-based skills training with job placements. Microsoft also, of course, owns Azure, which competes very directly with AWS.
However, even with both companies and quite a few more all looking to be the go-to platform for cloud-based tech training, it’s a wellspring of opportunity that won’t soon run dry: today, Gavin Jackson, Amazon’s UK MD for AWS, noted a recent study that said that in the UK alone, some 93% of organizations are having problems finding people who have the necessary IT skill set for jobs that need filling. Karen Bradley, UK Secretary of State for Culture, Media, and Sport, said in a statement:
Increasing digital skills in the UK is a major priority for the Government and we are working to make sure that everyone has the skills they need. We welcome the launch of AWS re:Start which is a fantastic initiative bringing together employers from different sectors and providing the foundation on which they can continue to train and grow the UK’s digital workforce.
It does make one question the lack of similar such programs from the tech sector. At a time when many young people still may not consider higher education but have not had the necessary training for the jobs of today and tomorrow when still in school, providing them with opportunities like this to pick up those IT skills outside of a formal education system is becoming ever more necessary.
Another plus is the case of military personnel and their families, who may have had to be uprooted several times in the course of several years since it provides a viable, thriving option for helping them out as they make the transition into civilian life.
