AMAZON will provide free AI training to two million people by 2025 in a bid to boost proficiency.
The firm’s AI Ready commitment aims to provide training via three initiatives aimed at adults and young learners, as well as scaling existing training programmes.
There will be a range of expertise levels, with the first — eight AI and generative AI courses — accessible to anyone. Amazon Web Services (AWS) already offers portfolio of 80 free or low-cost resources.
The second initiative, the AWS Generative AI Scholarship, will be targeted at students from underrepresented communities. It will be backed by $12m to provide 50,000 high school and university students with access to a course, and a certificate on completion.
Josh Boer, director at tech consultancy at VeUP consultancy, said building technical skills in areas such as AI would play a central role in fast-growing businesses. “It’s great to see large corporations such as Amazon prioritise accessible training … Funding, training and educational opportunities must be kept top-of-mind.”
AI and cloud services can be tailored to a business’s specific needs, says Boer. “AWS in particular offers businesses the ability to increase agility, drive down costs, and promote innovation.” But for the benefits of emerging technology to be fully deployed “we must ensure our workforces are fully equipped with the knowledge and skills they need.”
The initiatives announced will add to Amazon’s $1.2bn investment in education and skills-training for cloud computing.
