"We have long believed in the transformative power of education and skills training to change lives," said Maureen Lonergan, VP of AWS Training and Certification. "Exceeding our goal of providing free training to 29 million learners ahead of our target is incredible - and we're just getting started. I am personally so excited about the millions of people from all walks of life who have invested in themselves to build or advance their career in cloud. Together with our AWS partners, we will continue to train tens of millions of learners across the world in the AWS Cloud and help them prepare for in-demand jobs."

AWS has purposefully designed a scalable portfolio of free offerings to meet the needs of a wide range of learners of all skill levels - from AWS re/Start's workforce development training programs for unemployed and underemployed people to AWS Skills Centers' in-person learning centers with immersive exhibits that bring cloud computing to life. AWS also offers digital, self-paced trainings and learning plans through AWS Skill Builder and AWS Educate, the online learning centers.

To meet its 29 million goal, AWS launched and scaled several free, diverse training initiatives, such as

• offering more than 600 free, on-demand trainings and learning plans in up to 14 languages on AWS Skill Builder
• tripling the global footprint of AWS re/Start, a cohort-based workforce-development training program, which is now offered in more than 200 cities and 60 countries.
• opening three AWS Skills Centers in Seattle, Arlington, and Cape Town that are open to anyone interested in starting their cloud learning journey
• providing access to hundreds of hours of free, self-paced training for new-to-cloud learners, a job board, and a community on AWS Educate

The impact of these efforts has been felt across the globe by learners of all backgrounds:

• "I didn't know anything about the cloud before. AWS Educate opened my eyes to the possibility of a cloud career, something I never considered before." - Nova Lailatul Rizkiyah, AWS Educate learner, Indonesia
• "I've always wanted to be in tech, but I was a bit scared. My first contact with tech was through the AWS re/Start program. The support from the community that we had in class, and the tutors for the AWS re/Start program, is what helped me. Right after graduating, I got a role as a dev- ops engineer, and then I became a cloud trainer, and now I am a product manager." - Nana Adjoa Anim, AWS Educate and AWS re/Start learner, Ghana
• "As a job seeker, I found the training at the AWS Skills Center in Seattle was instrumental in helping me gain foundational cloud knowledge and developing resilience. This journey has been transformative, and I'm eagerly looking forward to the exciting future in my cloud career." - Steen Krogh Groennebaek, AWS Skills Center learner, Seattle

Through these global training initiatives, we've gained valuable insights into the content and types of training that are resonating with learners. Role-based courses like our Cloud Practitioner, Solutions Architect, Developer, and Data Analytics trainings consistently top the popularity charts - proof that career development is a key motivator. We've also learned that people want to have fun while learning.

AWS Cloud Quest: Cloud Practitioner is our most played game-based learning role and is the fourth most consumed training on AWS Skill Builder. As artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) emerge as game-changing technologies, demand for related training has skyrocketed. Some of our most popular AI/ML courses are Amazon Bedrock Getting Started; Introduction to Generative AI - Art of Possible; Amazon Q Business Getting Started; and Amazon Q Introduction.

There will be continued investment in free cloud computing and AI skills training.

Surpassing our 29 million milestone is just the beginning: Amazon continues to invest in providing free and low-cost cloud computing and AI skills training for people of all backgrounds and skill levels. The goal is to build an inclusive pipeline of diverse, skilled talent worldwide that is prepared for the AI-enabled future of work.

As part of Amazon's recently announced "AI Ready" initiative to provide free AI skills training to two million people globally by 2025, we've introduced new free courses to help learners prepare for AI-enabled jobs:

• Introduction to Amazon PartyRock on AWS Educate teaches you how to use prompts to create your own AI apps.
• New courses on AWS Skill Builder like Developing Machine Learning Solutions cover the ML lifecycle; Developing Generative AI Solutions explores customizing foundational models; and Introduction to Responsible AI defines core dimensions of responsible AI practices for generative AI.

In addition to technical AI skills, we're also helping people develop essential soft skills, such as communication and problem solving, which are critical yet challenging to hone through traditional training methods. We recently launched AWS SimuLearn, powered by Amazon Bedrock, which provides an immersive learning experience that pairs generative AI-powered simulations with hands-on training to help people translate business problems into technical solutions.

Learners engage in interactive conversations with virtual customers to gather requirements, propose solutions, receive contextual feedback, and optimize architectures-just like real customer engagements.

To get started with AI-powered training, explore the free 12 Cloud Practitioner assignments on AWS SimuLearn.