Brazil, Colombia join the AWS Skills to Jobs Tech Alliance to tackle talent gap | Amazon Web Services

In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, the demand for skilled tech professionals continues to outpace the supply. This talent gap poses significant challenges for businesses across Latin America, with almost half of tech vacancies remaining unfilled due to a lack of qualified candidates.

Addressing this challenge, Amazon Web Services (AWS) has expanded the Skills to Jobs Tech Alliance to Brazil and Colombia. This initiative aims to foster collaboration among employers, academic institutions, and governments, ensuring that academic curricula aligns with real-world demands of businesses.

At the core of the Tech Alliance lies a collaborative effort to validate and then communicate the technical and professional skills learners need to develop for entry-level jobs in cloud engineering, data analytics, and software development. Employers play a crucial role in this process, engaging learners and educators through skills maps, capstone projects, internships, apprenticeships, and exclusive hiring events for participating educational institutions.

Unlocking digital talent in Brazil

The technology sector in Brazil has experienced exponential growth, fueled by the digitization of businesses and the increased consumption of digital services. However, educational institutions face challenges in keeping up with this rapid pace, both in terms of the quantity and quality of the talent trained. It’s estimated that the IT sector in Brazil will create approximately 420,000 new jobs by 2025, with an average annual need for 159,000 workers in this field and only 53,000 individuals graduating annually.

Launched in March 2024, the AWS Skills to Jobs Tech Alliance in Brazil will connect educational institutions with employers, assisting in the curricular modernization of higher education to align with the qualifications sought in technology job vacancies. Through talent acceleration programs, the Tech Alliance helps institutions equip candidates with the necessary technical and interpersonal skills according to the latest technological trends, preparing them for entry-level positions that will enable employers to develop and boost their businesses.

The scarcity of qualified tech talent is a major challenge that affects the majority of employers in Brazil, and when it comes to diverse talent, the challenge is even greater. The inclusion of women in technology is not just a matter of gender equity, but an imperative for development and innovation in the sector. Currently, only 20 percent of Brazil’s IT workforce is comprised of women, and employers face the challenge of not only attracting but also retaining female talent in IT.

Recognizing the importance of diversity and inclusion, the Brazil Tech Alliance will also incorporate the AWS Women in Cloud program. This collaboration with participating educational institutions offers free technical training and practical activities to empower women to pursue careers in technology, breaking down stereotypical barriers and promoting a more diverse and inclusive IT workforce.

The Tech Alliance launches in Brazil with initial collaborators that include educational groups Anima Education, Yduqs, Centro Paula Souza, partners Compass UOL and Matera Institute, and more than 70 committed employers including Capgemini, Select Solutions, and Minsait who have hired from other Skills to Jobs initiatives.

“The AWS Skills to Jobs Tech Alliance is an opportunity to further deepen the dual education model we have built in partnership with AWS in recent years,” said Felipe Frosi, IT and computing area manager at Anima Education.

Dual education is a collaborative approach involving vocational schools and companies, both local and international, to train students and future professionals. It enables higher education students to combine theoretical classroom learning with practical experiences, facilitated by company managers in the fields they aspire to work in.

“We are excited about the partnership and the opportunity to provide professional updating in information and communication technology (ICT) for our students, supplementing the regular curriculum,” said Emilena Lorenzon Bianco, vice director superintendent of Centro Paula Souza. “This initiative expands student employability, adding skills that the technology market seeks.”

Building bridges between industry and academia in Colombia

The software and technology industry in Colombia generates around $10 billion annually, creates nearly 370,000 jobs, and is one of the fastest growing sectors in the country, maintaining annual growth rates of between 10-to-15 percent in recent years.

“Today, we have a challenge in Colombia, and that is about 48 percent of the vacancies that open up in new technologies cannot be filled because there is not enough talent. With this Alliance, what we want is to support closing that talent gap and provide young people with more opportunities,” said Juan Pablo Rincon, public sector lead for North Latin America at AWS.

In Colombia, AWS launched the Tech Alliance in February 2024, in collaboration with the Colombian Ministry of Education and REDTTU, Colombia’s public technical and technological institute network. The program will impact nearly 3,000 students in cities like Bogotá, Cali, Barranquilla, and Medellín, connecting program graduates with approximately 200 committed employers.

“This type of public-private collaboration is essential to democratize education access for students nationwide, ensuring young Colombians can thrive in national and international labor markets,” said Aurora Vergara, Colombian Minister of Education.

More than 25 AWS customer and partner employers, including companies like Bancolombia, Claro, SoftwareOne, Bext Technology, Nubiral, Nuptum, Nuvu, and Pyramid Consulting have joined the Tech Alliance. It is expected that this number will grow to 100 employers by June 2024.

Public and private higher education institutions will work to adjust and complement their curriculum to better align with the skills needs of employers, using AWS designed skill maps, gap analysis tools, a project library and other self-guided Tech Alliance resources.

More than 20 institutions including Los Andes University, Universidad Nacional, Universidad Nacional Abierta a Distancia, and UNAD, and 10-plus institutions from REDTTU have committed to participating in the Tech Alliance.

The Tech Alliance collaborates with 10 industry associations including the Chamber of Digital Industry and Services of the Colombian Business Association (ANDI), the Colombian Software Federation (Fedesoft), Invest In Bogota, Global Opportunity Youth Network Bogota, and the Colombian Innovation Network (Connect).

A unified vision for tech talent development

“A qualified workforce for the use of new technologies is fundamental to countries’ economic growth. The most effective way to ensure success for current and future generations is to unite the public, private, and academic sectors,” says Valerie Singer, general manager of global education at AWS.

The Skills to Jobs Tech Alliance in Brazil and Colombia exemplifies AWS’s long-term vision – uniting industries, governments, and educators to improve technical training aligned with real workforce needs, creating diverse pipelines of job-ready talent across the globe. This initiative aims to empower learners with the skills and opportunities they need to thrive in the tech industry. By fostering collaboration and aligning educational programs with industry demands, the Tech Alliance creates a more diverse and skilled workforce, driving innovation and economic growth across Latin America and beyond.

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