RICHMOND, Va. — Governor Ralph Northam on Friday announced a new collaboration between Amazon Web Services and select K-12 school divisions, the Virginia Community College System, and leading four-year universities.
The new collaboration will create opportunities and build pathways to high-skilled and high-wage cloud computing careers for students in all regions of the Commonwealth.
The collaboration will allow certain school access to use Amazon Web Services Educate, an initiative to support cloud technology learning for students and faculty.
With the increasing demand for cloud employees in the Commonwealth, AWS Educate provides an academic gateway for the next generation of IT and cloud professionals. AWS Educate is Amazon’s global initiative to provide students and educators with the resources needed to accelerate cloud-related learning.
AWS Educate will allow schools to incorporate cloud skills into high school STEM curriculum as well as associate and bachelor degree programs.
The following institutions will participate in this initiative and have committed to implement the cloud computing degree program in Virginia:
K-12:
- Fairfax County Public Schools
- Loudon County Public Schools
- Alexandria City Public Schools
- Arlington Public Schools
Community Colleges:
- Northern Virginia Community College
- J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College
- John Tyler Community College
- Thomas Nelson Community College
- Blue Ridge Community College
- Patrick Henry Community College
- Dabney S. Lancaster Community College
- Tidewater Community College
- New River Community College
- Lord Fairfax Community College
Universities:
- George Mason University
- Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
- Virginia Commonwealth University
- Old Dominion University
- Hampton University
- Virginia State University
“The field of cloud computing is growing and dynamic, and we know that for our Commonwealth to reach new heights and remain a national leader in tech talent, we must build seamless pathways from classrooms to careers at all education levels,” said Governor Northam. “This initiative represents exactly the kind of cooperation we need to ensure that Virginians have access to the skills they need for 21st-century jobs, while also helping employers find Virginia workers with the right training to fill those jobs.”
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