Digital technology has become ubiquitous in US classrooms, and is now being adopted by a growing number of schools generative AI.
Despite this, equitable access remains a challenge, with millions of families, often in underserved and underrepresented communities, without access to a computer or the Internet at home. This not only prevents students from joining distance learning, doing homework or simply fitting in – it also creates a divide in what is seen as possible for career opportunities.
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Amazon hopes to help change this dynamic. ua Wealth exclusively, the company announces the establishment Amazon’s Education Equity Initiative—a $100 million commitment to help educational organizations develop digital learning opportunities for underrepresented communities. Over the next five years, the funds will be distributed in the form of AWS cloud credits.
Swami Sivasubramanian, vice president of artificial intelligence and data at Amazon Web Services (AWS), says the initiative is based on the idea that artificial intelligence is the most transformative technology of this generation and will fundamentally change every industry – and barriers to technology must be broken down. .
“Education and opportunity should be available to all,” says Sivasubramanian Wealth. “Unfortunately, if you look at it, the global demand for educational technology is growing, but many organizations in the edtech sector that serve students from underserved communities don’t have the resources they need to take advantage of cutting-edge technologies like cloud and AI.”
Organizations like Tangible Africa and Code.org they previously partnered with Amazon and provided IT education to millions of students worldwide. This new initiative will provide an increase in projects. Code.org, for example, plans to expand its AI-powered teaching assistant Amazonian foundation.
Karim Meghji, Chief Product Officer at Code.org, says this commitment is exciting because of its ability to empower educational organizations of all sizes to use AWS technology to bring positive results to the lives of students.
“I think this capital, funding and support initiative that Amazon is promising can have an incredible outcome in terms of reaching students through organizations large and small the way I’ve seen it change the lives of the students we serve directly every day through Code.org.”
Learn more: Here they are 7 free AI classes you can take online from top tech companies, universities
Computer science and artificial intelligence skills: essential for all careers
Learning about informatics and artificial intelligence is the most important, say both Sivasubramanian and Meghji—regardless of whether students want to work in the software engineeringnursing, finance or any other field.
“AI is going to be a much-needed skill in the same way that it’s important to know Word and Excel and various other things,” adds Sivasubramanian.
For those specifically looking for a technology career, Sivasubramanian suggests that an understanding of key aspects of computer science, such as how operating systems work and how programs are executed, is key – along with the ability to use artificial intelligence to help with programming.
“It’s not about learning 10 different ones programming languagesbut it’s about learning how to program, say maybe one, and then embrace these AI assistants,” he says.
It highlights AWS’s 2023 survey, which found that employers are willing to pay an average of 47% more for a worker with AI skills versus someone without them. Internally, he adds, when AWS started developing and using its own AI assistant internally, Amazon Q, the company saved about 4,500 development years.
Number of new software developer The number of jobs in the next decade is expected to be the second largest of all occupations, according to US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Both Sivasubramanian and Meghji also point to computational thinking or problem solving as softer skills that every student should master to ultimately unlock career opportunities and drive economic gains.
“The super important thing that we all need to do is expand access, especially for young students, and give them access to cutting-edge technology and democratize education for not just millions, but hundreds of millions of students from underserved and underrepresented parts of the world. community too,” says Sivasubramanian.
Organizations can apply for AWS’s Equity in Education Initiative online.
Amazon is #2 on Fortune 500 list and earned more than $30 billion in revenue in 2023 alone. AWS controls the largest percentage of the cloud infrastructure market, according to Synergy Research Group.
