Today, Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced that AWS is training over two million people and continues to fill the cloud skills gap in India. India is riding a wave of innovation, which relies heavily on an equipped digital workforce to meet the growing demand for cloud computing. Prospering the region requires a strong digital workforce and technology professionals equipped with relevant and up-to-date digital skills to keep pace with change. A research report commissioned by Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS) at AlphaBeta titled Building Digital Skills for the Changing Workforce found that by 2025, 63% of workers in India will feel the need for training in related skills. to the cloud to advance in their careers. ; and three of the five most in-demand digital skills by 2025 will be cloud-related.

To meet the growing demand for skilled digital workers, India’s current workforce needs to evolve. Today, AWS announced that it has taken a major step in addressing the technology talent gap by providing cloud skills training to more than two million people in India since 2017.

“I am proud that AWS has provided cloud skills training to over two million people in India, and we recognize that there is still much to do as we continue to build a better digital future in India,” said said Phil Davis, general manager of Asia-Pacific and Japan Commercial Sales at AWS. “To build a diverse and ready workforce, governments, training providers and employers must work together to make skills training more accessible and targeted. Our goal is to help people, from beginners to seasoned IT professionals, learn new skills in cloud computing, and we are committed to working with industry and governments to help close the digital skills gap. .

Closing the skills gap through extensive training programs

AWS collaborates with higher education institutions, nonprofits, workforce development organizations, governments, and employers on a range of digital development programs aimed at preparing the next generation of professionals cloud to early cloud careers and creating a diverse pipeline of entry-level talent for the workforce. .

In India, this includes programs like AWS re/Start, which is a free, 12-week, full-time skills development program that prepares unemployed, underemployed, and people in transition for careers in the cloud. computing. The program is part of AWS’ global commitment to invest hundreds of millions of dollars worldwide to provide free cloud computing skills training to 29 million people. In April this year, AWS, IPE Global and AISECT collaborated to launch two re/Start cohorts specifically for women in Rajasthan. The program emphasizes connecting graduates with local employers, including AWS partner Capgemini, a global leader in consulting, digital transformation, technology and engineering services, which actively recruits graduates from re/Start program in entry-level cloud roles.

These programs help shape our future workforce and build a pipeline of digital workers who may not have joined the industry before. When the pandemic hit, Rashmi Sharma found her job in the events industry uncertain. Although she had no prior IT experience, she decided to explore a career in IT. “The COVID-19 pandemic has caused me to re-evaluate my career,” Sharma said. “I decided to pursue a job in IT. AWS re/Start was the only program I found that was designed for people like me with no formal education or work experience in the IT industry, but with a strong desire to pivot into the industry. With the help of my mentor, who patiently guided me and others through the 12 weeks, I dove into coding and cloud computing. I’m now a Trainee Engineer at Wissen Infotech and looking to continue honing my skills through other AWS Cloud training programs.

Take an industry-wide development approach

In addition to training individual workers, AWS helps customers, partners, and organizations of all sizes in India develop the cloud skills they need to accelerate innovation and achieve their business goals. For example, Perfios, one of the leading providers of financial statement analysis software in India, has been on a rapid growth trajectory since its inception in 2008. To accelerate development, Perfios wanted to address the AWS knowledge gaps of its developers. AWS designed a custom learning plan that took 500 Perfios employees (approximately 60% of their workforce) through a series of 11 technology paths, consisting of 25 training sessions on topics such as technology essentials , DevOps, containers, Big Data and architecture. This improvement initiative has enabled Perfios to reduce new product development time by more than 50%, improve platform reliability by 40-50%, reduce maintenance time by 40-50% and support the company’s growth globally.

“We had to train our developers in serverless technologies, DevOps and managed services to develop the expertise we needed,” said Ramgopal Cillanki, senior vice president and head of engineering at Perfios. “We were sometimes experiencing system downtime because we weren’t expert at scaling and managing instances. With our increased proficiency in AWS Serverless Services and AWS Managed Services, we have reduced our maintenance time by 40-50% and reduced the impact on our customers.

Investing in training is also crucial for AWS Partners; a skilled workforce enables teams to support customers with confidence and credibility. For example, in early 2021, TCS set up a dedicated AWS business unit with the goal of building capabilities and capabilities at scale to ensure joint customer success with AWS.

Aditya Jaigopal Nagarajan, Global Head – Strategic Initiatives and Operations, AWS Business Unit, TCS, said, “At TCS, leaders bear the dual responsibility of nurturing new talent and transforming existing talent to achieve the goal. above. In partnership with AWS, the TCS-AWSBU talent development fabric not only focuses on technology quotient, but also helps build well-rounded professionals by training them in key areas such as software-specific program management techniques. industry, capacity orchestration, partnership behaviors, crisis management. etc This helps our associates drive business transformational value for our customers, fueled by cloud technologies and setting the right tone of inspiration for future generations in TCS.

Debjani Ghosh, Chairman of NASSCOM, underscored the need for large-scale technology skills: “Large-scale skills must be a national priority and become India’s competitive advantage to enable the country to become the global engine of development. technological talent. Close collaboration between government, business and industry associations is the need of the hour to enable India’s talent pool to develop skills in emerging technologies that will shape India’s ‘Techade’ (technology driven decade) In all areas. NASSCOM and AWS, through FutureSkills Prime, are committed to further accelerating this growth and making India the global hub for highly skilled digital talent.

Building a diverse and technologically enabled workforce

According to According to the Building Digital Skills for the Changing Workforce report, one way to help close the digital skills gap is to build a more diverse and technologically active workforce. For example, 73% of workers who are not currently taking any training indicated that they would be interested in training in the next year. Additionally, 62% of women said their main motivation for undertaking digital skills training was a desire to improve their productivity at work and increase their salary. Among women who received training, 94% improved their productivity at work and 91% experienced a salary increase after undergoing digital skills training, which was higher than the 92% and 86% respectively for men.

Collaboration will drive our digital economy forward

To achieve our innovation goals and improve the skills of our workforce, we need governments, employers and workers to commit to developing a culture of lifelong learning. There is immense untapped potential for members of the non-tech workforce to develop their digital skills and, with their current experience and skills, create transformative advancements in our communities and society.

To learn more about Amazon’s global commitment to provide free public cloud computing skills training to 29 million people, visit AboutAmazon.com/29million.