Miami Dade College (MDC) and Amazon Web Services (AWS) have collaborated to develop a model for sustainable workforce development that is opening doors for students, meeting local workforce needs, and supporting economic vitality by building local talent.
The MDC and AWS collaboration is focused on students from the largely immigrant and low-income communities in Miami, enabling them to access higher education and connecting them to cloud-computing careers with local businesses. In the MDC cloud computing certificate program, students go through industry-aligned training and are supported and mentored by faculty and cloud computing professionals. After completing the program, an MDC student is ready to walk into a position as a skilled entry-level cloud computing specialist. The program is working to change the recruiting and hiring practices of companies looking for cloud computing support by showing that years of experience and a bachelor’s degree are not always necessary when a program is intentionally designed to meet industry needs. In the case of MDC’s cloud computing programs, students are ready to enter the workforce when they graduate.
Prepared by Career Ladders Project for Miami Dade College