CSCU Launches Amazon Web Services Training Program

Connecticut state colleges and universities have joined more than 200 other higher education institutions across the country in offering a certificate program in cloud computing developed by Amazon Web Services and tailored to the tech giant’s technology.

The program and the way it is administered, through public and private colleges and universities, is one-sided Amazon – which dominates the cloud computing industry – strives to strengthen the pool of skilled workers who can support the company’s service brand in all sectors. AWS provides computing power to companies like Disney, Netflix, Facebook, and NASA.

According to an AWS spokesperson, AWS is currently training CSCU instructors in its “free, ready-to-teach, cloud-based study programs,” which will be offered to students pursuing certifications. The course will cost students just under $ 800 – paid to CSCU to cover instructor salaries – but state officials say they plan to help subsidize this with funding from the US federal bailout. . Upon completion of the course, students will be required to pay and pass an exam administered by AWS to earn certification. It will not count for college credit.

“There is definite growth in the market for these skills, and we want to get as far ahead as possible,” said Niall Dammando, chief of staff for the Connecticut Office of Workforce Strategy. . Dammando said there have been more than 40,000 job postings in the state for cloud computing jobs over the past year, and a growing number are specifically looking for candidates with AWS certifications. The state aims for at least 2,000 residents to complete the AWS Academy program, as it is known, within the next three years. “The goal is for all of those 2,000 people to find jobs in Connecticut,” Dammando said, although no guarantees have been given by AWS.

While the program addresses a clear need in the high-tech talent pool, some question the role of the state and its higher education institutions when it comes to such targeted training.

Gordon Lafer, a professor who studies workforce policy at the University of Oregon, said as higher education budgets tighten, it has become common for state universities to associate with industry and specific companies to provide vocational training.

“From a public policy perspective, it would be better if people got degrees with broader skills or qualifications, to give people more job options and more power in the labor market.” , Lafer said.

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Aaron Osmond of Amazon’s Education to Workforce team at the announcement of partnering with Connecticut colleges and universities to offer a certificate program.

“The tension here is between lifelong learning and so-called personalized training,” said Greg LeRoy, executive director of economic development watchdog group Good Jobs First. “Personalized training isn’t necessarily a bad or a good thing,” LeRoy said, but problems arise when public schools “become an extension of a company’s HR department, and the company actually does. than to transfer its internal training costs to the public sector. ” And if training programs focus on training people in a specific skill set, it could push employers to adopt technologies the workforce is already familiar with – in this case, AWS.

But AWS has already cornered a disproportionate chunk of the cloud computing market, analysts say, and its tools have become ubiquitous for businesses and organizations across industries.

According to AWS, more than 86,000 students worldwide have completed its AWS Academy courses. Besides Connecticut, there are eight other statewide AWS Academy initiatives in Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Arizona, Texas, Louisiana, Virginia, and Utah. Most other states have several schools that offer the program, including 36 schools in California.

“Hundreds of thousands of businesses are using cloud computing technology from AWS,” said Thomas Coley, president of the Shoreline-West region of Connecticut Community Colleges. “They need talent to work, to operate systems, to do programming, to design systems. By training these people, we are providing a skill set that can be offered across multiple industries, ”Coley said. “This is what the industry wants.

Coley said the community college is also working on a certification program with Google that it plans to offer soon. Other CSCU schools list certificate courses specific to Honda, General Motors and Cisco. And the state has in direct partnership with General Dynamics Electric Boat on vocational training programs for its workforce in the construction of submarines.

Amazon has a reputation for researching state and local tax breaks and workforce development funds. And while the AWS Academy program does not include tax breaks or financial incentives, according to Dammando, it gives AWS clear advantages in today’s competitive high-tech job market.

“I suspect this isn’t the first tech company to dominate an industry where they impose a professional certification divide around it,” LeRoy said.

According to Amazon, the company invested $ 4 billion in Connecticut between 2010 and 2020, “including infrastructure and the remuneration of our employees”. There are four Amazon distribution and sorting centers in Connecticut, seven delivery stations, and nine Whole Foods markets.