How to Use AWS Educate as a Student and Recruiter

Are you a student looking for a career in the IT industry? Are you a technology business owner looking for the right talent? AWS Educate is the platform where entry-level AWS candidates or learners meet recruiters.

Amazon Web Services has a 33% market share of the cloud industry, as reported recently by ChannelE2E. Hence, learning AWS allows cloud computing enthusiasts to secure good jobs in companies that use AWS. On the flip side, many businesses need AWS experts since they use cloud infrastructure from Amazon. 

Therefore, Amazon launched Amazon Educate to help students get entry-level training on AWS for free. Also, companies can hire directly from this marketplace. Continue reading to find out more about AWS Educate from the perspective of students and employers.       

What Is AWS Educate?

Amazon Web Services Educate is a barrier-free platform that enables students, pre-professional learners, and fresh graduates to get hands-on training on AWS cloud infrastructure. The program offers grants to eligible participating candidates. This grant usually credits that users can redeem on the AWS platform.

Students can create their own AWS account and pay for the services using the AWS credits they receive. Hence, IT students coming from economically weaker sections, less-equipped colleges, etc., can also learn about AWS so that they can enter the cloud computing job marketplace.

Sometimes, learning content does not even need you to set up an AWS cloud computing infrastructure because that content comes with interactive, hands-on labs.

AWS Educate is also a great place to hunt the right entry-level AWS talent for business organizations.

In a nutshell, it is a job marketplace where students from any discipline can join. They get basic training on AWS. Then, they apply for available jobs to start the journey to becoming a seasoned AWS cloud engineer.         

The Purpose Behind AWS Educate

Cloud computing learning is highly industry oriented. You may start learning from any institution or online certification platform, but your expertise will be limited to theories.

It will be tough to secure a job and gather hands-on experience on cloud computing projects. Sometimes, candidates do not get related jobs due to the lack of industry-oriented training.

Similarly, cloud-based businesses also suffer from a cloud expert crisis. Organizations can not just hire freshers with basic knowledge because that will become a bottleneck in revenue-earning.

So, why did this issue emerge in the first place? Cloud computing is a nascent technology growing through practical implementation in businesses. There are only a few pieces of literature and textbooks on cloud tech that discuss the actual industry projects.

On top of that, different cloud infrastructure comes with different workflows, industry phrases, management framework, etc. Tech giants like Google, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, Amazon, Alibaba, Lumen, etc., are the big players.

Now, pre-professional learners, students, and veterans hardly get hands-on experience with industry-specific projects from cloud tech providers. Candidates can only get practical lab examples on dummy projects that are insufficient to perform in the industry. 

To resolve this bottleneck, cloud service providers offer their own certification programs, learning platforms, real-life lab projects, etc. Candidates can go through such learning programs to become worthy entry-level job prospects.

Amazon is no different. Hence, it offers multiple learning opportunities on AWS through various programs, including AWS Educate. It serves the purpose by offering the followings:

• Free AWS credits to use AWS cloud for academic research and class projects
• Self-paced learning materials
• Educational resources on the AWS Academy portal
• AWS Job Board for job posting by company recruiters                  

Benefits of AWS Educate

Since different businesses like small, medium and enterprises actively use AWS to deploy business apps or run business processes, learning AWS is a lucrative investment. Hence, Amazon Web Services Educate is highly beneficial in the following ways:

Benefits for Students

AWS Lessons for Everyone

Students from any discipline above the age of 13 can join this cloud computing learning platform.

Industry-Oriented Learnings

Cloud learners get hands-on experience on industry-based projects and workflows to become job-ready.

Learning On-Demand

AWS Educate Learner’s portal helps self-paced learners choose a learning pathway that helps them get their dream job in a cloud-first company.

Save on Tuition

IT students can reduce tuition costs by getting a grant from AWS for free access to Amazon Web Services cloud tools.

Virtualization Technology

AWS Educate also functions as a virtual environment to learn cloud infrastructure and task orchestration, develop mobile apps, build web apps, run workflows, and so on. During practice sessions, students can make as many mistakes as they want. Because they can not cause any damage to the original project.

Badges

The program offers digital badges for successfully completing courses, learning paths, etc. Candidates can print these badges as resume supplements or showcase them online on their portfolio websites, social media platforms, etc.

All Tools and Services for Training

Amazon Web Services Educate platform is a full-service training portal. It provides all the tools and services a student might need to learn application development, maintenance of workflows/apps/assets, resource orchestration, and management of cloud computing infrastructure. You get free and unlimited access to the required functionalities through AWS credit.

Job Assistance

The platform also offers job alerts, interview accelerators, job boards, recruiter engagement, etc.

Online Learning

Learning materials are 100% online. Students can go through self-paced training on this platform if their primary coursework differs from AWS. 

Professional Networking

It also enables you to build your own network of cloud professionals that dwell on this platform. 

Portfolio

Get a student portfolio to showcase all the projects that you have completed under the Amazon Web Services Educate program.             

Benefits for Educators and Institutions

Cost Minimization

Institutions can cut costs by reducing cloud infrastructure ownership for training and practice purposes. Just encourage students to apply for the AWS Educate grant from Amazon for free access to cloud computing tools. 

Remote Instruction

Educators can teach and train from any location since the AWS cloud is a completely virtual platform.

One-Click Project Restore

Trainers need not worry about damage to their cloud projects because AWS has a one-click restore process to bring back the original asset.

Develop Educational Apps

Teachers can develop educational cloud apps on AWS and remotely give their students access to such assets. It will bring innovations in the education app niche.

Institutional Training Platform

Institutions can develop an entire remote training and learning platform on AWS to cater to students who want online delivery of education.

Virtual Workstations

Amazon Web Services Educate program also comes with desktop-as-a-service for a limited number of virtual workstations. Institutions can capitalize on this and reduce in-house bare metal computers for lab projects. This saves costs on IT hardware.

Use Content the Way You Want

Colleges and schools can incorporate the AWS learning content as is or with modifications. Because the course comes with a free license.

Job Boards

Colleges do not need to set up a separate job board for cloud computing faculty. Learners get it for free from Amazon.             

Benefits for Businesses 

Save Time and Resources

Businesses can save time that they invest in hunting the right talent for their cloud computing team.

Free Job Posting and Hiring

Companies can create recruiter accounts on AWS Educate to post jobs for free, interview candidates from a high-quality pool, and select the right talent. No need to pay any commission to third-party recruiting agencies.

Automated Screening

As a company, you do not need to recruit personnel for the screening of candidates. All the candidates on this portal show up in the order of their course completion level and cloud computing abilities.   

Learning Topics Covered by AWS Educate

The platform hosts learning content that will help students become cloud-ready. The followings are the major domains that the platform covers:

• Analytics (4 courses)
• Cloud Computing (15 courses)
• Development (14 courses)
• Machine Learning & AI (10 courses)
• Network & Infrastructure (10 courses)
• Professional skills (2 courses)
• Security (6 courses)

The courses in the above niches also come in different complexity levels. For example, you can find the following three different levels of content:

• Foundational
• Intermediate
• Advanced

That is not all! Self-paced pre-professionals and students can also learn content that goes for a specific time duration. It is a great benefit for learners with limited time slots for cloud computing. You can choose between the following options:

• Less than 1 hour
• 1-2 hours
• 2-3 hours
• 3-5 hours
• More than 5 hours

Now that you know how to choose course work, find below some highly popular topics: 

AWS Management Console Introduction

This preliminary course will train you on how to navigate the AWS Management Console in industry-based scenarios. It also includes a hands-on lab for practical knowledge. Moreover, the course covers best practices for billing credits and managing cloud infrastructure.

Introduction to Cloud 101

It is an introductory course on AWS cloud covering the following key AWS services: 

• Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3)
• Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2)
• Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS)
• Amazon DynamoDB
• AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)
• Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (Amazon VPC)

All the above topics will have separate hands-on labs. You will get a badge to flaunt your cloud mastery upon successful completion of the course. 

Machine Learning Foundation

It is yet another introductory course that will teach you the fundamentals of the Amazon Machine Learning process. You’ll get effortless training on how to use a machine learning pipeline to solve an industry-related problem. Furthermore, you will get to practice the Jupyter Notebook during lab sessions.

AWS DeepRacer Prime 

This course helps you to get started with machine learning in a gamified environment. It is the DeepRacer project of AWS and powered by the advanced ML process reinforcement learning (RL). You get free access to this project to build, train, and assess the capability of your ML project on your own.

Worthy DeepRacer projects become eligible for AWS re: Invent, AWS DeepRacer League, etc., which offer prices and prestige.

How do Employers get Qualified Candidates?

Primarily, AWS Educate Job Board is the marketplace where qualified candidates meet recruiters directly for free of cost. Recruiters do not need to pay anything to AWS to post jobs, interview candidates, or hire top talent.

Candidates registered with the Amazon Web Services Educate platform learn industry-related could computing topics on the said platform. Students who complete a learning path or individual coursework earn badges as proof of completion. Simultaneously, the AWS Educate Job Board updates the skill and proficiency levels of the candidates. 

If you are a business owner, manager, or recruiter, you can just set up an account on this platform. Once your account is active, you can hire candidates directly or post jobs so students can apply. 

So far, high-value businesses have hired entry-level employees from this platform. The employers have reported that candidates from AWS Educate can apply cloud computing skills in real-world scenarios and start contributing quickly.      

How to Sign Up for AWS Educate

For Students

• Keep your institutional email account credentials handy.
• Log in to the Amazon Web Services Educate registration portal.
• Select Learn cloud skills.
• Fill up and submit the Create your account form. 
• AWS will send an email when the account is active. 

For Recruiters

• Go to the AWS Educate recruiter account portal.
• Choose Hire for my company.
• Now, submit the Create your account form and wait for further communications from AWS. 

AWS Educate: FAQs

Final Words

AWS Educate is a great platform to learn industry-oriented cloud computing for free. Cloud tech companies like Google, Microsoft, etc., are offering tailormade learning programs to tech-savvy students who show interest in cloud computing. AWS Educate is similar to these.

Explore the platform as a student to find out if AWS learning is right for you. You can start with basic courses to grow your interest.

And for recruiters, sign up with your work mail now to explore bright talents from anywhere in the world.

You may also explore some courses and resources to help you become an AWS Cloud Practitioner.