Dive Brief:

• Howard University will integrate Amazon Web Services' AWS Educate, the company's cloud computing skills initiative, into new and existing curriculum as part of a collaboration between the two organizations, the university announced May 19.
• The collaboration aims to provide Howard University students with pathways to tech careers as well as access to education on topics including cloud computing, machine learning and computer vision. Howard also will create a new master's degree program in data science, per the announcement.
• As part of the collaboration, students will be able to access a "cloud-focused job board" with full-time, early-career and internship roles at Amazon and its affiliates. AWS also will support student events such as hackathons and pitch competitions, Howard said.

Dive Insight:

This move is the latest in an ongoing series of expansions into the career training space for AWS, which announced in 2019 a pair of partnerships with George Mason University and Northern Virginia Community College to create cloud computing degree pathway programs.

AWS has also sought to build up training opportunities for unemployed and underemployed individuals. In October 2020, AWS expanded its re/Start job training program to cities such as Martinsville, Virginia, and Newark, New Jersey. Prior to the pandemic, the company introduced training and certifications aimed at closing the skills gap between workers in non-tech roles and cloud computing skills.

The Howard University announcement is also one of the latest examples of a large tech organization engaging with the historically Black college and university community. Google, for example, announced last year a $1 million investment in digital skills training programs at Bowie State, Winston-Salem State and Virginia State universities, among other institutions, Higher Ed Dive reported.

Partnerships with external organizations may form a significant component of company learning and development strategy as employers seek to improve diversity, inclusion and equity within their workforces, sources told HR Dive last year.