COVID-19 has caused a jump in the adoption of cloud technologies for software-led business and all-remote delivery. This in turn has led to higher demand for professionals skilled in working with them. Some in the industry are meeting the increased need with tech-enabled remote learning programs. 

Amazon Web Services Inc. and Salesforce.com Inc. have partnered for five years on infrastructure and differentiated software offerings. They’ve also partnered on educational offerings and are now focusing particularly on virtual delivery due to the pandemic.

“This is really … driven by our customers, who are asking us to do our part in bringing more of these skilled resources into the ecosystem,” said Alyene Schneidewind (pictured, right), chief resource officer of Salesforce Anywhere and strategic partnerships at Salesforce. 

Schneidewind and Maureen Lonergan (pictured, left), director of worldwide training and certification at AWS, spoke with John Furrier, host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, during AWS re:Invent. They discussed the two companies’ partnership aimed at spreading tech skills to a larger base of learners with virtual tools. (* Disclosure below.)

Completion rates aren’t what they used to be — and that’s a good thing

Salesforces’ free online learning platform, Trailhead, helps democratizes tech skills important to the workforce of the future. It offers its own Salesforce-specific training, as well as AWS learning tracks and certification on the platform. 

Due to the pandemic, the companies are ramping up access to remote learning channels. This is broadening access to training and certification to locations historically lacking, according to Lonergan.

Also, some whose careers were disrupted are upskilling or pivoting toward tech with the help of these programs. Trailhead, which is accessed via its website and the Trailhead GO application, offers foundational tracks, or “trails,” like AWS Cloud Practitioner Essentials, as well as more advanced content. It offers five different machine learning tracks.  

Adoption of the curriculum has shot up over the last couple months, according to Lonergan. “We’ve seen such an amazing uptake on the courses with, like, 85% completion rate on one of the trails and 95% completion rate on the other one. To keep customers engaged is really a credit to how Trailhead is designed,” she concluded. 

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of AWS re:Invent. (* Disclosure: Salesforce.com Inc. sponsored this segment of theCUBE. Neither Salesforce.com nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SilconANGLE