Author: Training and Certification Blog Editor

In 2018 the idea of earning all 12 AWS Certifications probably wouldn’t have crossed Ian Butler’s mind. But after a combination of his company’s accelerating cloud journey, the COVID-19 lockdown, his own ambition, and a newfound passion for training others, Butler, a Cloud Capability Lead for ANZ, now finds himself an enthusiastic AWS developer, having passed all 12 AWS Certifications over a two-year period.

Just yesterday, Chouaieb Nemri passed his 12th AWS Certification, which means he now has every certification currently offered by AWS–an achievement shared with a limited number of individuals. Even more remarkably, Chouaieb completed his previous 10 certifications in the span of a single year. Chouaieb suffers from a rare and severe form of muscular dystrophy, which significantly compromises his ability to move. To hear Chouaieb tell it, however, he was able to achieve these amazing technical feats not so much despite his disability but because of it.

In April 2023, we released 15 digital training products on AWS Skill Builder, including AWS Jam Journey: Security re:Invent and a new AWS Builder Lab for AWS Skill Builder subscribers, and three learning plans (with digital badges) for cloud essentials, Media and Entertainment, and Amazon Connect. We are updating the AWS Certified Security – Specialty exam, and learners who complete all 12 assignments in AWS Cloud Quest: Cloud Practitioner can earn a 25% off exam voucher for AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner.

Learn how Ukrainian refugee, Anastasiia, utilized ITSkills4U to transition from being a small business owner (a beauty salon) to build the skills and AWS Certifications to start a new career in cloud DevOps.

Advancing Women in Tech (AWIT) is a non-profit organization that aims at addressing this gap by providing upskilling avenues and increasing the availability of women tech leaders as mentors. AWIT recently launched a collection of courses on Real-World Engineering Management, sponsored by AWS and available exclusively on Coursera.

In Nigeria, 30–45% of all jobs will require digital skills by 2030, and 28 million workers will need technical training across sectors. Learn how Stanbic IBTC, a leading commercial bank with operations in Africa, is helping to create the next generation of cloud experts in Nigeria through its annual skilling initiative—the Digital Skills Empowerment Program (DiSEP).

When the war broke out in the Ukraine in February 2022, Julia was offered an opportunity to relocate to Poland with her current employer. Once there, she found a job listing for a customer service coordinator with AWS’ ITSkills4U program. She applied and got the job. Learn how ITSkills4U has transformed Julia’s life, in both the work she is doing and how she chose to take advantage of the free cloud skills trainings the program offers Ukrainians.

In March 2023, AWS Training and Certification released 27 digital products including 14 AWS Builder Labs, an AWS Jam Journey (analytics), two courses for AWS Partners, three courses for c-suite leaders, and a classroom course on AWS security best practices. Exam labs have been temporarily removed from the AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate exam. To help organizations scale skill-building with their teams, AWS Skill Builder Team subscription is now available in 50 countries.

Deloitte recognizes that one of its greatest strengths is the unique perspectives and voices of its people—with diversity, equity, and inclusion part of its core values. Deloitte has also long recognized the gender gap in the technology space and has been working to close that gap through training programs. Learn how Deloitte’s CloudUp for Women (CU4W) program has helped women from diverse professional backgrounds gain in-demand cloud skills and address the gender gap in tech.

Throughout Women’s History Month, we’ve been celebrating stories of women in the cloud. Diana Todea is a Site Reliability Engineer for Cloud Observability at Elastic. We’ll share how Diana used AWS Certifications to move her career forward quickly to become competitive in the cloud and grow in her overall understanding of technology and her role within it.