Enterprise Skills Transformation Program Guide

This Enterprise Skills Transformation (EST) Program Guide is maintained by the EST team and outlines the EST team’s offerings as well as the commitment and expected customer outcomes.

The EST team helps enterprise customers achieve transformation faster through strategic upskilling initiatives that accelerate organization-wide cloud fluency and new skill application. The EST team delivers the following offerings depending on the customer’s unique needs: 

• Cloud Enablement Assessment: a stakeholder interview-based report with recommended cloud enablement focus areas.
• AWS Skills Guild: a consultative engagement to help build an organization-wide cloud enablement initiative rooted in cloud excitement, skills application and community development.
• AWS Skills Guild Extension: extended EST team assistance beyond the initial AWS Skills Guild.
• AWS Skills Guild 2.0: a second AWS Skills Guild for customers who have graduated from their first AWS Skills Guild.
• AWS Skills Guild Tournament: a lighter touch engagement to help customers run an internal, 12-week cloud training competition.

The Cloud Enablement Assessment (CEA) is a 12-week interview-based engagement to determine a customer’s current cloud enablement state, understand gaps in their cloud transformation journey and provide recommendations for their cloud enablement strategy. It is available to customers for a one-time fee.

A member of the EST team will conduct a series of comprehensive 90-minute interviews with key stakeholders to understand the customer organization’s cloud enablement status. These stakeholders can range across business areas and positions in the company. After the interviews, information is collated and data gathered into a CEA report, which will be presented back to the executive sponsor of the engagement for a clear view of possible ways forward.  

In the report, customers will receive a holistic overview of their current enablement capabilities across strategy and governance, enablement initiatives, community buy-in, skills acquisition and application, and learning culture. Each area will be rated for strengths and focus areas. The engagement duration (up to 3 months) will be effective as of the kick-off meeting of the engagement, as conducted by EST team and will conclude with the report playback to stakeholders.

Below are some of the benefits and deliverables customers can expect when engaging in a CEA:

1.     Stakeholder Interviews 
   • The EST team will interview up to 6 customer stakeholders to evaluate customer's cloud enablement program against best practice, to understand areas of maturity and gaps. 
2.     Assessment and Executive Summary Report
   • Information gathered in the interviews will be compared against enablement best practices and success benchmarks to provide a view of the relevant cloud enablement steps that have worked for other cloud players in the market. 
3.      Governance Structure
   • The EST team will provide a one or two-person team to support the customer’s Cloud Enablement Assessment.

AWS Skills Guild is a targeted T&C offering that is carried out by the EST team. It is a 6-month high-touch consultative engagement that coincides with an organization-wide T&C training investment over a 12-month period, and it is available to customers for a fixed monthly fee. An AWS Skills Guild helps enterprise customers maximize their training investment by accelerating cloud skill application with a bespoke internal training initiative. 

The EST team works with customers’ senior leadership to establish desired cloud outcomes that support organizational business goals, then constructs a tailored cloud training and skills enablement program (a “Guild”) to help achieve these outcomes faster.

EST team members act as advisors to help develop and launch these programs, while teaching customers to nurture cloud excitement and a community of continuous learning.

The EST team helps customers set up their cloud “Guild” using its AWS Skills Guild framework. The framework focuses on three key areas to increase cloud training program adoption:

1. Build Excitement for Cloud Innovation: We bring a customer’s AWS Skills Guild to life by helping develop their cloud enablement program name, logo, digital assets, communication strategy, engagement ideas, and recognition recommendations. These elements create company-wide anticipation and prestige for cloud learning, and lay the program foundations.
2. Enable Skill Acquisition, Retention, and Application: Using T&C tools like the Learning Needs Analysis (LNA) to identify skill gaps, we establish and coordinate a unique training plan to help customer workforces “learn to cloud” at their specific organization. Customers are offered a holistic, integrated mix of formal T&C offerings (classroom and digital trainings such as Skill Builder) and learning events (Game Days, Immersion Days, lunch and learns, etc.) to increase new cloud skills experimentation, retention, and application.
3. Inspire Cloud Advocates and Community: We help customers recruit cloud “champions” within their organization, then mentor and empower them to passionately share cloud knowledge with others. Champions are integral to their AWS Skills Guild’s success because they carry out the “culture of learning” within the organization and take on ownership roles when the AWS Skills Guild team engagement concludes.

Below are some of the benefits and outcomes customers can expect from an AWS Skills Guild engagement: 

1.      Governance Structure & Program Team
   • A customers’ Core Team includes both an Executive Sponsor and Guild Lead (Project Manager), as part of the eligibility requirement for an AWS Skills Guild offering. Other roles are identified and are recommended to be assigned in the customer’s Core Team help even out the responsibility and workload for the program. Finally, a group of cloud “champions” scale the programs efforts by acting as active internal advocates for the program and may take up responsibilities such as hosting internal events.
   • EST team may participate in up to 4 project update calls per month. These calls can include project status updates, alignment on priority focus areas, and actionable next steps to make continued progress towards the program’s goals. This is in addition to key engagement milestones and workshops.
   • EST team involvement varies by region, training size, and scope, and consists of either one Engagement Manager (EM) and one Delivery Lead (DL) or a hybrid EM/DL role. These team members will work closely with customer executive decision makers, T&C business development managers (BDMs), and the customer’s AWS account team. 
2.     Program Goals and Measurement
   • EST team to conduct a goal-setting session, with customers to define structured goals for the program.
   • EST team to work with customers to regularly track success criteria for their Guild.
3.      Program Learning Paths 
   • EST team will work with customers to create learning paths consisting of structured AWS Training (Instructor-led Training and Digital Training) and other learning events, so that they may have a comprehensive view of learning across modalities.
   • EST team to facilitate up to 2 cloud/AWS events, activities, or learning sessions per month.
4.     Program Branding
   • EST will work with customers to establish a branded identity for their Guild to increase program recognition, participation, and sustainment.

The AWS Skills Guild Extension (Extension) is a continuation of a customer’s AWS Skills Guild beyond the initial 6-months’ time period. An Extension is typically three to six months in duration depending on the customer’s need. It is available to customers for a fixed monthly fee.

The engagement duration will be effective as of the mutually-agreed upon start date with the customer. As part of a Guild Extension, the customer will continue to provide an Executive Sponsor and a Guild Lead (Project Manager), and they will maintain the ongoing consumption of the initial or new ILT/Skill Builder licenses for the duration of the engagement.

• Ongoing as per the initial AWS Skills Guild engagement.

AWS Skills Guild 2.0 (2.0) is a tailored engagement offered to customers who have since graduated from their first AWS Skills Guild (AWS recommends at least 6 months between engagements), who require additional support around the embedment and expansion of their AWS Skills Guild. It is available to customers for a fixed monthly fee.

2.0 follows the same framework as an AWS Skills Guild engagement and will run for 6 months. The EST team will re-engage to align new goals, drive new business results, or reach new parts of the customer organization. 

Below are some of the benefits and outcomes customers can expect from a Skills Guild engagement: 

1.     Governance Structure & Program Team
   • A customers’ Core Team includes both an Executive Sponsor and Guild Lead (Project Manager), as part of the eligibility requirement for an AWS Skills Guild offering. Other roles are identified and are recommended to be assigned in the customer’s Core Team help even out the responsibility and workload for the program. Finally, a group of cloud “champions” scale the programs efforts by acting as active internal advocates for the program and may take up responsibilities such as hosting internal events.
   • EST team may participate in up to 4 project update calls per month. These calls can include project status updates, alignment on priority focus areas, and actionable next steps to make continued progress towards the program’s goals. This is in addition to key engagement milestones and workshops.
   • EST team involvement varies by region, training size, and scope, and consists of either one Engagement Manager (EM) and one Delivery Lead (DL) or a hybrid EM/DL role. These team members will work closely with customer executive decision makers, T&C business development managers (BDMs), and the customer’s AWS account team. 
2.     Program Goals and Measurement
   • EST to conduct a goal-setting session, with customers to define structured goals for the program.
   • EST to work with customers to regularly track success criteria for their AWS Skills Guild.
3.     Program Learning Paths 
   • EST team will work with customers to create learning paths consisting of structured AWS Training (Instructor-led Training and Digital Training) and other learning events, so that they may have a comprehensive view of learning across modalities.
   • EST to facilitate up to 2 cloud/AWS events, activities, or learning sessions per month.
4.     Program Branding
   • EST team will work with customers to evaluate their existing branded identity and evaluate any communication requirements to ensure program recognition, participation, and sustainment.

AWS Skills Guild Tournament (Guild Tournament) is a lighter touch engagement to help customers run an internal, 12-week cloud training competition to help drive AWS Certification numbers and AWS Skill Builder adoption. It is available to customers for a fixed monthly fee.

Guild Tournament is a gamified 16-week engagement designed for customers to build cloud skills, foster collaboration, generate real-life innovative ideas from within and have fun in a competition setting. The 16 weeks duration is made up of 4 weeks’ planning and 12 week’s execution of the Guild Tournament, and customers will need to provide an Executive Sponsor and a project management resource to support the engagement.

Below are some of the benefits and deliverables customers can expect when engaging in a Guild Tournament engagement: 

1.     Governance Structure
   • Customer to provide one or multiple departmental leads to act as a program coordinator/project management resource.
   • Customer to create cross-functional teams within their organization. Teams are encouraged to also include non-IT disciplines to provide visibility on business problems and potential solutions from across the organization.
   • EST team may participate in up to 4 project update calls per month. 
   • EST team to provide one team member to support the customer’s Guild Tournament. 
2.     Activities and Events
   • EST team to create an activity roadmap focused on communications, learning and incentivization activities across the program.
   • EST team to facilitate up to 2 cloud/AWS events, activities, or learning sessions per month.
   • Facilitate idea submission by the Guild Tournament teams to the Tournament Telegram (the program’s competitive innovator accelerator concept) on a four-weekly basis. Where needed, connect leadership stakeholders with teams to further shape ideas and link back to organizational needs.

Customers qualify for select EST Program engagements through meeting T&C spend thresholds and establishing a supporting governance structure to help to maximize the overall impact of the EST Program engagement. Below are qualification requirements for customers to participate in each offering type: 

AWS Cloud Enablement Assessment 

This offering is suitable for customers in the early stages of evaluating their cloud enablement state or those who have conducted a cloud enablement program and wish to assess their progress. 

• Customer to provide 5-6 suitable stakeholders for the interviews (role descriptions can be further provided during the sales meetings), with all interviews to be conducted in the initial 10 weeks of the engagement.
• Each interview stakeholder to commit to 90 minutes of interview time.
• Executive sponsor to commit to 1 hour of report playback time.

AWS Skills Guild 

• Commit to T&C spend thresholds in order to qualify for a Skills Guild. Contact your EST team member for details.
• Commit to a 6-month timeline working with EST team.
• Provide an Executive Sponsor for the engagement.
• Provide a core team (project management resources) to support the engagement.

AWS Skills Guild Extension

• Customer has reached the originally planned end date of AWS Skills Guild engagement.
• Commit to a three to six-month timeline working with EST team.
• Provide an Executive Sponsor for the ongoing engagement.
• Provide a core team (project management resources) to support the ongoing engagement.
• Commit to ongoing consumption of initial or new ILT/Skill Builder licenses for the duration of the extension.

AWS Skills Guild 2.0

• Commit to T&C spend thresholds in order to qualify for a Skills Guild. Contact your EST team member for details.
• Customer has graduated from an AWS Skills Guild with the EST team for at least 6 months.
• Commit to a 6-month timeline working with EST team.
• Provide an Executive Sponsor for the engagement.
• Provide a core team (project management resources) to support the engagement.

AWS Skills Guild Tournament

• Commit to T&C spend thresholds in order to qualify for a Guild Tournament. Contact your EST team member for details.
• Commit to a 16-week timeline working with the EST team.
• Provide an Executive Sponsor for the engagement.
• Provide a program coordinator/project management resource for the engagement.