In Honor of Our Veterans

We are excited to welcome our first AWS Worldwide Public Sector Military Apprentice Cohort. The team graduated from the instructor-led training portion of their curriculum delivered by Northern Virginia Community College (NVCC) and are now starting the next phase of the Technical Development Program (TDP) under the AWS Intelligence Initiative (AI2).

AI2/TDP centralizes the onboarding, training, and development of new hires waiting to obtain their security clearance as a long-term solution to staff technical positions supporting AWS air-gapped government regions. AI2/TDP is an accelerated career development program for early career technical professionals (Cloud Associates) consisting of a curriculum-based residency in Herndon, VA, interspersed with rotational assignments over a six-month to one-year period to prepare employees for a customer-facing technical role supporting National Security and U.S. Department of Defense customers.

This initiative is part of Amazon’s pledge to hire 25,000 veterans by 2021. We are on track to far exceed our pledge. Amazon now employs more than 17,500 veterans and military spouses across the United States and expects to hire over 10,000 more by 2021.

At Amazon, we’re constantly looking for leaders who can invent, think big, have a bias for action, and deliver results on behalf of our customers. These principles look familiar to the men and women who have served our country in the armed forces – and also to their spouses.

Today, veteran employees fill roles across the company – from cloud computing positions at Amazon Web Services to virtual customer service roles.

In addition to working alongside our veterans, we are committed to providing the tools to strengthen the skills of transitioning service members through access to cloud computing resources and other technologies, such as the Amazon Echo and the Kindle.

• AWS Educate for Veterans: U.S. based veterans and their families are eligible to create an AWS Educate account, which gives them access to resources that can accelerate cloud-related learning endeavors to help power civilian career success. We’re pleased to announce a new program benefit available to AWS Educate veteran members. When you complete a Cloud Support Associate or Cloud Support Engineer AWS Educate pathway, you will become eligible for a phone screen for an AWS Cloud Support Associate or Cloud Support Engineer job. Get started with AWS Educate today.
• VA’s Brain Trust: Amazon is teaming up with Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to extend the use of digital devices to help improve the lives of veterans with disabilities. Through this collaboration with VA’s Brain Trust, Amazon will donate 100 Amazon Echo devices with Alexa Voice Service units to VA’s Assistive Technology Labs. Amazon staff will also collaborate with VA experts to ensure Echo devices are programmed specifically to meet the needs of veterans. Beyond the Echo donation, Amazon will also collaborate with VA staff to expand the accessibility of Kindle reading programs to veterans and families staying at VA Fisher Houses.
• AWS Certification Exam Reimbursement for Veterans: US service members returning from active duty can face many challenges as they transition to civilian life and embark on a new career. To help veterans succeed, we’ve worked with the VA to make AWS Certification exams eligible for VA reimbursement. Learn more and find answers to common questions here.

Whether you are currently transitioning out of the military or have been out for a while, whether you’re in school already have a degree, we’ve got something for you. Learn more here.