AWS Tech Alliance India: Boosting Career Readiness in New Technologies
The Amazon Web Services (AWS) Skills to Jobs Tech Alliance (Tech Alliance) is a global coalition focused on addressing the skills gaps that exist in the tech sphere. It brings together a diverse group of entities, including AWS customers, AWS Partners, governmental bodies, workforce development organizations, and educational institutions. The primary goal is to equip learners with the skills needed for in-demand tech jobs, thereby meeting the evolving needs of employers in the age of cloud computing.
Each year, the demand for workers with relevant tech skills increases as cloud computing continues its rapid advancement. With more than five million open cloud roles globally, companies face a significant hurdle in identifying, recruiting, and retaining skilled cloud professionals. In February 2024, AWS launched the India Tech Alliance to address these challenges. This initiative aims to boost career readiness for aspiring tech professionals and modernize tech programs through various applied learning activities.
“In India, the government continues to pioneer initiatives to accelerate digital transformation and build the next generation digital workforce. AWS, too, is committed to advancing technology innovation in India and to strengthening the future workforce by bridging technology skill gaps in the country,” stated Pankaj Gupta, Public Sector Leader for AWS India Private Limited. “The Tech Alliance has a tremendous opportunity to create a technology talent pipeline in India and prepare learners with industry-relevant skills and expertise. Since the launch of the Tech Alliance in India almost one year ago, we are pleased that the number of participating employers and higher education institutions has doubled to 51 employers and 49 higher education institutions.”
Over the course of the year, the Tech Alliance has significantly expanded its reach. Participating members have collaborated to deliver more than 50 events, connecting 29,000 learners with potential employers across India. The program’s focus is to provide a pipeline of job-ready individuals.
Aligning Academic Programs with Industry Needs
To meet the demands of the industry, academic programs must align with the current needs to produce entry-level talent specializing in cloud and emerging technologies. The Tech Alliance strengthens existing learning resources made available through programs such as AWS Academy. Activities include:
- Creating early-career role-based skill maps
- Connecting employers with institutions to provide feedback on course curricula
- Partnering with employers to provide targeted engagements and programs
Altium, a software leader, joined this initiative to enable skill-building for learners around connected manufacturing concepts. “We are excited to join hands with the Tech Alliance in India. This association is an endeavor to address Altium’s commitment to supporting emerging engineers and the skills gap in education curriculum especially for entry-level tech roles in the electronics industry,” said Rea Callender, Vice President of Education for Altium. “We believe the combination of skills in electronics, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence [AI] will be crucial for the industry going forward and will be a key requirement for India’s growth aspirations in electronics manufacturing.”
Building a Pipeline for Emerging Technologies
Participating in the Tech Alliance allows institutions to offer their students enhanced learning experiences based on collaborative initiatives, such as access to a sandbox environment for hands-on learning, industry mentorship, and bootcamp training. The organization has enabled more than 5,000 learners in India to gain knowledge on generative AI fundamentals and prompt engineering. “As an educator, it’s always fulfilling to witness students engage with cutting-edge technology. The AWS generative AI Ideathon provided an exceptional platform for our students to explore the world of cloud computing and generative AI,” said Mr. Y V S Durga Prasad, AWS Educator and Placement Officer at ACE Engineering College. “Seeing the level of creativity and innovation in their solutions is both inspiring and a testament to the value of such practical learning experiences.”
Partnering to Improve Employability
The Tech Alliance conducts its work in partnership with local organizations whose missions align with improving skilling and employability. ICTAK (Information & Communication Technology Academy of Kerala) aims to bridge the skills gap in the information communication technology field through partnerships with industry, academia, and the government. Since the integration of AWS Educate modules with the Tech Alliance’s Cloud Engineer skills map, ICTAK has seen over 250 learners register each month.
HireMee, a talent acquisition and management platform, contribute by deploying their assessments to learners from participating Tech Alliance institutes. “Participating in the AWS Tech Alliance is a great opportunity to offer our assessment that focuses on important skills that have been identified by the World Economic Forum to students and their respective institutions. The assessment helps the individual and/or respective institution understand and bridge the gaps (if any) to enhance their employability quotient,” stated Venkatraman Umakanth, HireMee’s Senior Vice President and Head. “The Tech Alliance provides a collaborative platform where we can work together to prepare young learners to be job ready.”
Opportunities for Diverse Learners
The India Tech Alliance launched an initiative aligned with the AWS Women in Cloud program, an initiative that provides mentorship for women looking to build their tech careers. The program builds a pipeline for access to diverse, qualified talent for AWS customers, partners, and hiring managers. In the Tech Alliance’s first three months in India, the program has reached 1,000 women from education institutions and is aiming to engage 3,000 women by the end of 2025. The mentorship component of this effort connects senior female tech employees with educational institutions that are part of the alliance. “By sharing my experiences and insights, I aim to inspire them to embrace their potential, celebrate successes, learn from setbacks, and pursue their passions fearlessly to shape their professional paths,” said Lovelyn Moses, APAC Manager of People and Culture at SoftwareOne.
Joining the AWS Skills to Jobs Tech Alliance in India allows businesses to take action and continue innovating. Interested employers can connect with the AWS Tech Alliance to find entry-level cloud and tech talent.
