AWS to bolster cloud skills development in Singapore

Singapore’s labour movement has teamed up with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the city-state cope with technology disruption through two new training courses on cloud computing.

Through the courses, SMEs will be able to gain a basic understanding of cloud computing and use a slew of AWS services to build simple projects. They will also learn more about applying internet of things (IoT) technologies to their businesses.

The two-day courses, conducted by the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) LearningHub, the labour movement’s training services arm, will be available from the end of July 2018. Participants will also receive up to S$75 worth of AWS credits that can be used to offset the cost of using AWS cloud services.

LearningHub said it chose to partner with AWS due to the latter’s past partnerships with other institutions in the region, such as that with India’s skills development corporation to train more than 10,000 engineering students in Andhra Pradesh on cloud computing.

One sales representative who took part in a trial programme conducted by LearningHub ahead of the launch of the new courses said she gained practical knowledge on the use of the AWS IoT button, which can be programmed to perform tasks such as calling a cab or tracking the use of medication.

Vincent Quah, regional head of education, research, healthcare and non-profit organisations at AWS Asia-Pacific, said the new training courses would help Singaporeans develop highly sought-after cloud computing skills while making the learning experience more relevant and practical.

Sun Ho, founder of Little Lives, a Singapore-based company that developed an app that enables pre-schools to share photos and videos of pupils with parents, said AWS cloud services have been instrumental to the growth of her business.

As an example, Ho said the use of AWS cloud services had helped her to tap computing and storage resources on demand, and shortened the time it takes to process large media files. She also spoke about the benefits of using Amazon CloudFront to accelerate content distribution to parents who may be located overseas.

According to IDC, spending on public cloud services and infrastructure in Asia-Pacific, excluding Japan, is slated to reach US$15.1bn in 2018, an increase of 35.7% from 2017.