NEW ORLEANS — The Tulane University School of Professional Advancement (SoPA) announced its participation in AWS Academy, a new Amazon Web Services (AWS) program designed to help students acquire the skills and credentials needed to successfully join the cloud IT workforce. Beginning in summer 2020, students can enroll in courses that will prepare them for careers in the rapidly growing cloud computing space and help them pursue industry-recognized AWS Certifications. Details were shared in a press release.
Tulane faculty develop and maintain academic courses that have been infused with AWS Academy content that keeps pace with cloud innovation. All Tulane faculty members teaching AWS Academy courses have earned AWS Certification and are proficient in AWS technology. Through lectures, hands-on labs, group discussions, individual projects, and knowledge checks, students gain a real-world understanding of AWS cloud practices in conjunction with an underlying academic understanding of cloud technology.
“The AWS Academy program gives students access to the AWS cloud skills and knowledge needed to hit the ground running after graduation. According to Global Knowledge 2018 IT Skills and Salary Report, the average salary of an AWS Certified IT employee is 29-percent higher than a non-certified staff member,” says Ralph Russo, Program Director for Information Technology and Professor of Practice at Tulane SoPA. “Forbes magazine has ranked AWS Certification as one of the top 15 most valuable IT certifications. This means Tulane SoPA graduates will have mastered skills that open doors to professional opportunities.”
AWS Academy courses are aligned with AWS Certifications, which means that the curriculum is directly related to the industry-recognized validation measure. The AWS Academy curriculum is embedded into the Tulane SoPA coursework and available to students at no additional cost to tuition.
“Across many academic disciplines, including all STEM majors, demand far exceeds supply for talent. Talent shortages are expected to have severe consequences for individual companies and the communities and countries in which they operate. AWS Academy is focused on providing authorized curriculum and faculty development support. This investment in higher education is a direct effort to bolster the worldwide talent supply chain. We want to build a bridge to cross the STEM skills gap,” says Scott McKinley, the AWS Academy Global Team Lead.
AWS Academy is interwoven in the fabric of the Tulane SoPA’s Information Technology degree program. This program offers two online master’s degrees, a bachelor’s degree and post-baccalaureate certificates (PBC) in flexible formats to accommodate online learning, in-person instruction or a combination. Students enrolled in this program will be prepared to pursue careers in information technology, cybersecurity, technology management, and programming. The curriculum balances advanced problem-solving techniques and business acumen with practical solutions for IT problems.
