Digital technology has become ubiquitous in American classrooms, and more and more schools are now adopting it generative AI.
However, equal access remains a challenge as millions of families, often in low-income and underrepresented communities, do not have access to a computer or the Internet at home. Not only does this prevent students from joining classes remotely, doing homework, or simply meeting requirements—it also creates a gap in what is seen as possible for career advancement.
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Amazon hopes to help change that dynamic. In a Fortune exclusively, the company announces the creation of Amazon Education Equity Initiative— a $100 million commitment to help educational organizations develop digital learning opportunities for underserved and underrepresented communities. Over the next five years, the funds will be distributed in the form of AWS cloud credits.
Swami Sivasubramanian, vice president of AI and data at Amazon Web Services (AWS), says the initiative is based on the idea that AI is the most transformative technology of this generation and will fundamentally change every industry, and barriers to technology must be eliminated.
“Education and opportunity should be available to everyone,” says Sivasubramanian Fortune. “Unfortunately, when you look at it, the global demand for educational technology is growing, but many organizations in the edtech sector that serve learners from underserved communities do not have the resources they need to use advanced technologies such as cloud and AI”.
Organizations like Tangible Africa and Code.org previously partnered with Amazon and provided computing to millions of students around the world. This new initiative will allow projects to scale. Code.org, for example, plans to expand its AI learning assistant, which runs on Amazon.
Kareem Megji, 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 make a positive difference in the lives of students.
“I think this equity initiative, and the funding and support that Amazon is promising, can have an amazing outcome in terms of reaching students through organizations large and small in a way that I’ve seen make a difference in the lives of students who we serve directly every day through Code.org.”
Learn more: Here 7 free artificial intelligence classes you can take online from leading technology firms, universities
Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Skills: Crucial for Any Career
Learning about informatics and artificial intelligence is paramount, say Sivasubramanian and Megji, regardless of whether students want to work in software engineeringcare, finance or any other field.
“Artificial intelligence is going to be such an essential skill, it’s just as important that you know Word and Excel and all sorts of other things,” adds Sivasubramanian.
For those seeking tech careers, in particular, Sivasubramanian suggests that understanding basic aspects of computer science, such as how operating systems work and how programs run, is critical, 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 to program, say, maybe one, and then adopting these AI assistants,” he says.
He points to a 2023 AWS survey that found employers are willing to pay an average of 47% more for a worker with Artificial intelligence skills against someone without them. Internally, he adds, when AWS started developing and using its own Amazon Q AI assistant internally, the company saved about 4,500 developer years.
Number of new ones software developer Job growth is expected to be the second largest of any occupation over the next decade US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Both Sivasubramanian and Megji also point to computational thinking or problem solving as softer skills that every student should master in order to ultimately unlock career opportunities and benefit them economically.
“The very important thing that we all need to do is expand access, especially for young learners, and give them access to advanced technology and democratize education not just for millions, but for hundreds of millions of students from underserved and underrepresented parts of the country . community as well,” says Sivasubramanian.
Organizations can apply to participate in the AWS Education Equity Initiative online.
Amazon is #2 on Fortune 500 list and earned more than $30 billion in revenue in 2023 alone. According to Synergy Research Group, AWS controls the largest percentage of the cloud infrastructure market.
