When his career as a fitness instructor and plans to open a workout studio were suddenly upended by a global pandemic, Jarred Gaines needed a restart. He found it this year through an Amazon Web Services Inc. retraining program.

A few months ago, Gaines (pictured) enrolled in Per Scholas, an East Coast nonprofit that trains people for careers in technology. That led him to the AWS re/Start program, where he learned new skills in Linux, Python, security, networks and relational databases.

Today, Gaines has a new job in the information technology world as a customer service analyst for IDBS Ltd. It is about as far from where Gaines ever expected to be a year ago, but he is not complaining.

“COVID and quarantine presented so many challenges, and you had to adapt quickly,” Gaines said. “The most tech experience I had was upgrading my iPhone. The ‘re/Start’ name fits perfectly for the opportunity that it gives people. I’m that IT guy now, I’m it.”

Gaines spoke with Lisa Martin, host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, during AWS re:Invent. He was joined by Maureen Lonergan, director of worldwide training and certification at AWS, and they discussed a recently announced initiative by AWS to retrain millions of people and taking a different attitude toward adversity in a time of crisis. (* Disclosure below.)

Closing the gap

The AWS re/Start program is designed to address one of the most significant issues facing the technology industry today: a tech talent shortage in the U.S. that isn’t going away. CompTIA has estimated that the country had more than 1 million open IT positions last year, while schools turn out a paltry 60,000 computer science degree graduates annually.

On Thursday, Amazon Inc. announced a commitment to help retrain 29 million people globally by 2025, after committing $700 million last year to re-skill 100,00 of its own U.S. workforce.

“We want to provide training to anybody who wants it, and we do that through delivering it ourselves and through partnerships,” Lonergan said. “We can create pathways and jobs with more opportunity, higher wages, accelerated growth and less vulnerability in sudden disruptions like COVID.”

Gaines, who homeschooled his nine-year-old son while participating in the AWS program, had simple advice for those who might seek to follow his path into the tech industry.

“Empty your cup and disarm the ego,” Gaines said. “When you’re pivoting into a new career, it’s going to require some changes. It’s going to have a lot of challenges. When you come to it with an open mind and are willing to grind it out, it’s worth it in the end.”

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of AWS re:Invent. (* Disclosure: Amazon Web Services sponsored this segment of theCUBE. Neither AWS nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE