Motlow State, Amazon launches cloud computing initiative

Cloud computing careers are booming all over the U.S. and a new Motlow State partnership with Amazon will help local students get their AWS Certification for those jobs. (File Photo)

LYNCHBURG, Tenn. — On Tuesday, Motlow State announced a new initiative to help Moore County student prepare for cloud computing careers. As part of a statewide initiative in collaboration with Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS), the Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR), and the Tennessee Higher Education Commission (THEC), Motlow State Community College will train, upskill, and certify students in Tennessee in cloud computing. The overall goal for TBR is to train 5,000 people by 2025. Through this statewide initiative, technical training and education mapped to in-demand skills will be available from Motlow State.

“I’m delighted that AWS, Amazon’s cloud computing business, is able to provide the resources to Motlow at no cost,” Motlow’s Interim Executive Vice President for Student Success and Academic Affairs Charle Coffey said. “This collaboration offers an amazing opportunity for students to learn the latest technical skills and earn industry credentials to enable them to work in the growing tech sector.”

TBR will work with the AWS Academy program to provide Motlow State with no-cost, ready-to-teach, cloud computing curricula that prepares students for industry-recognized AWS Certifications and in-demand cloud-related jobs. Educators at Motlow State will have access to instructor training and a limited number of AWS Certification exams at no cost as they qualify to become AWS Academy accredited educators. Students can also access self-paced online training courses and labs from AWS.

Motlow State will incorporate cloud-computing skills into existing Information Technology courses. AWS Academy students take courses that give them the opportunity to develop a range of skills and expertise, from foundational cloud concepts to architecting, developing, operations, and data analysis on AWS. Currently, AWS Academy offers the following courses and learning resources: AWS Academy Cloud Foundations, AWS Academy Cloud Developing, AWS Academy Cloud Operations, AWS Academy Cloud Architecting, AWS Academy Machine Learning Foundations and AWS Academy Data Analytics.

With professional development opportunities and courses aligned to AWS Certifications, AWS Academy empowers educators to deliver hands-on learning experiences that prepare students for industry-recognized certifications and in-demand cloud jobs such as software development, cloud architecture, data science, cybersecurity, cloud support engineers, and more. To learn more about the AWS Academy program which is available to Tennessee schools, click here. •

{The Lynchburg Times is the only locally owned newspaper in Lynchburg and also the only woman-owned newspaper in Tennessee. We cover Metro Moore County government, Jack Daniel’s Distillery, Nearest Green Distillery, Tims Ford State Park, Motlow State Community College, Moore County High School, Moore County Middle School, Lynchburg Elementary, Raider Sports, plus regional and state news.}