Amazon Web Services this week launched a new free online training series on Twitch that aims to build up the skills of cloud developers.

The new series, the AWS Power Hour: Architecting, kicked off on Monday, July 12 and will run for six weeks. According to an AWS blog, the developer training is part of AWS’s commitment to offer free skills training to 29 million learners globally by 2025 through innovative offerings that let people learn at home or on the road.

AWS encourages those who want to become an AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate, to attend the weekly Twitch series and join the Get AWS Certified: Solutions Architect Challenge. By doing so, students can prepare for the exam and connect with other participants on Twitch. In joining the challenge, students are also eligible for a 50% discount voucher for the exam.

This stands as an amazing opportunity to learn for free in a non-traditional learning environment, noted Lauren Zink, security training and awareness program manager at Oportun. Zink said there’s a clear shortage of talent and skills in the growing area of cloud development – 451 Research has reported that 90% of enterprises say that their cloud skills gap has nearly doubled in the last three years – and AWS has been doing its part to bridge the gap by offering free training. 

“So often training can be expensive and cumbersome, with a weeklong boot camp that requires people to take time off their existing jobs, but this setup, with on-demand training, makes it not only attainable to attend from a monetary perspective, but easier from a time perspective as well,” said Zink. “Hopefully this is the start of more free training initiatives in the months and years ahead which will in turn help bring new skills to existing talent in our community, as well as build up new talent to fill the gaps.”

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