Amazon Joins Global Coalition To Advance AI Education Digital Skills For Students
Amazon has joined global education and technology leaders at the United Nations General Assembly in support of US First Lady Melania Trump’s Fostering the Future Together (FTFT) global coalition.
The coalition brings together first spouses and leaders from more than 45 countries with a shared goal of helping children learn, grow, and thrive through the safe, responsible, and innovative use of technology, including artificial intelligence (AI).
The initiative is built around four pillars — Digital Literacy and Skills, AI in Education, EdTech Tools, and Online Protection — that closely align with Amazon’s longstanding investments in education and workforce development.
As part of the effort, Amazon is launching new initiatives to expand access to AI education and digital skills for students worldwide. These build on the company’s Future Ready 2030 commitment — a $2.5 billion investment to prepare 50 million people for the future of work through more than 40 programmes.
In its new efforts in support of the coalition, Amazon unveiled the Kiro for students through which millions of students at 132 universities across 18 countries can now sign up for a full year of free access to Kiro, the AI-powered agent for software engineering. Through the initiative, students get access to the same advanced capabilities that major companies like Delta, Siemens, and Amazon itself use to build tech.
Knowing how to build with AI is quickly becoming a baseline skill for work, and this program puts Kiro directly in students’ hands so they can learn how to build apps, tools, and workflows in a structured way with AI agents before they graduate. Students at eligible institutions can sign up at kiro.dev/students.
Amazon is also launching the advancing AI education and literacy globally, a programme aimed at expanding AI education in key regions. In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Amazon is partnering with Khalifa University to launch the AWS Data Centre Infrastructure Training Programme, which provides students with practical, hands-on experience using an AWS-supplied data center training rack, complemented by AWS Academy’s Data Centre Engineering Operations curriculum. Top-performing students will gain priority to apply for work experience positions at AWS in the UAE.
Amazon is also launching Coding Clubs across schools in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, reaching more than 460 students aged 12–18 with foundational coding and computational thinking skills.
With its Powering the Future of AI Education comprising each of the coalition’s four pillars, Amazon has programmes and investments already at work, including Digital Literacy and Skills. Amazon has also provided free cloud computing training to more than 31 million people worldwide since 2019.
Its Career Choice education and career development benefit has served more than 300,000 employees since 2012 and is now backed by a $1 billion commitment to upskill an additional 500,000 employees globally.
AWS Educate is a curated learning path for students and developers to build in-demand tech skills and AWS Skills Centers in Seattle, Arlington, and Cape Town offer a front door to AI and cloud skilling for community members and collaborators. Amazon’s Cloud Innovation Centres provide students the opportunity to solve real-world challenges alongside university staff and industry experts while building valuable technology experience.
AI in Education: Amazon offers an on-ramp for AI learners at every stage—from students to those in the workforce. AWS Academy provides higher education institutions globally with free, ready-to-teach cloud and generative AI curricula. In addition, AWS is committing over $500 million to cloud and AI training for higher education students 18+ through AWS Builder Centre Student Rewards, a programme that gives verified higher education students access to earn AWS credits as they learn, build, and connect in the community.
EdTech Tools: Amazon is empowering EdTech companies, school districts, and learning organisations to build and scale solutions that reach more students. In 2024, Amazon launched a $100 million commitment of AWS technology to support organizations that build and scale innovative digital learning solutions with cloud and AI. Through AWS, institutions access the cloud infrastructure and AI services they need to develop personalised learning platforms and digital classroom tools. Amazon collaborated with PlayLab AI to establish a $500,000 fund helping school districts integrate AI tools and educator professional development, while Amazon Future Engineer has helped more than 2.1 million students receive over 17 million hours of computer science education.
