Amazon Web Services now offers an ‘intensive’ one-year training course in South Africa – here’s how to apply

Cloud giant Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced a partnership with Explore Data Science Academy to offer an intensive one-year training course.

The course provides a fundamental understanding of software development and cloud computing technologies, giving students a competitive edge, the group said.

Clive Charlton, head of solution architecture for the Sub-Saharan African Public Sector at AWS, said that 95% of students who graduate from the academy, find a job with an average starting income of R360,000 a year.

“The courses are extensive, and we also know that the cost of qualifications and training is often a barrier to young South Africans upskilling themselves,” said Charlton.

Details and how to apply 

The Explore Data Science Full Time Learnership course is an NQF level 5 learnership accredited by MICT SETA.

Through the course, AWS said that learners will gain an overview of data science and machine learning – the skills required to be a data scientist.

“In the fundamental phase, they learn how to clean, analyse and visualise data as well as how to effectively communicate the findings,” it said.

“During machine learning, students solve real-world problems by building regression, classification, and unsupervised learning algorithms in Python.

“This involves data exploration insight building, improving, and communicating models from a raw and unstructured dataset.”

The Explore Data Science Academy said that it offers multiple financial models to help learners complete the course, including fully sponsored leadership (free) and self-payment options (R50,000) or loan offerings (R2,000 per month for 36 months).

For completion times, Explore said it will take 12 months for a fully sponsored course or six months for a self-payment option.

“Fully sponsored candidates need to apply online and complete an Explore aptitude test. Our courses are designed to learn Data Science with no prior qualifications, aptitude and attitude are all you need,” it said.

You can find out more about the course and the application process here.

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