Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) skills development arm, AWS Training & Certification has partnered with Dimension Data’s Enterprise and Supplier Development (ESD) team to provide essential cloud education to key beneficiaries of the system integrator’s Enterprise Supplier Development (ESD) programme.

Through this initiative, AWS Training & Certification provides beneficiaries of the ESD Programme an opportunity to learn directly from highly skilled and knowledgeable AWS technical trainers over a three-month period.

Dimension Data has officially moved to elevate its local AWS partnership status to Advanced Consulting Partner, joining an elite few in the South African cloud environment.

Dimension Data recently completed its transition to operate as one entity bringing all its subsidiaries under a single Dimension Data brand. The company has strategically designed its operation to deliver services from infrastructure including cloud solutions, business applications, customer experience and systems integration – all underpinned by security solutions.

AWS Training & Certification has created a comprehensive training roadmap that aims to provide beneficiaries with the necessary cloud skills to accelerate their understanding of AWS services. By doing this, it helps customers think bigger as it comprehensively trains organisations with the necessary cloud skills to maximise their cloud investment while growing and retaining talent.

This training intervention between AWS Training & Certification and Dimension Data’s ESD team fosters a strong culture of inclusion and diversity, with a focus on seeding the African continent with a skilled, innovative and diverse tech workforce.

Dimension Data and AWS maintain that beneficiaries will obtain immediate exposure to global best practices and use cases over a three-month period, delivered in the form hands-on labs and virtual instructor-led training, and positioned to offer a wide range of resources, including foundational, advanced level and specialty courses.

These courses include Architecting on AWS, AWS Business Essentials, AWS Cloud Financial Management, AWS Cloud Practitioner Essentials, AWS Technical Essentials, Developing on AWS, DevOps Engineering on AWS, Migrating to AWS, Security Engineering on AWS, System Operations on AWS and Big Data on AWS.

AWS Training & Certification is passionate about building the required cloud skills in the African continent to address the alarming IT and digital skills shortage Africa is currently contending with.

The cloud skills gap is a major challenge for organisations that want to initiate or even accelerate their digital transformation journeys as a result of the lack of cloud skills in the market. That is why AWS Training & Certification has partnered with Dimension Data’s Enterprise Supplier Development team. They are investing in high impact small and medium organisations to fast track the development of cloud talent on the continent. A win-win for everyone.

The training intervention further seeks to help the sponsored beneficiaries to develop critical Amazon Partner Network competencies and capabilities, which will enable market access and sustainability in a VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity) market environment.