From a tech industry perspective, one of the most common things you hear about the pandemic is that it has dramatically sped up the rate at which many companies have adopted new technologies, including cloud computing.
However, at a deeper level, I would argue that the pandemic has significantly increased the pace at which many larger trends have impacted society, and employment overall, with technology, once again, playing a critical role.
It’s hard to ignore the fact that some industries – and the jobs related to them – which had been expected to only modestly decline have instead seen some dramatic drop-offs. From increased use of robotic automation to the online shift of stores, there are many examples of companies – and even entire industries – that have accelerated technology adoption during the pandemic. An unfortunate consequence is the number of people losing their jobs sooner than expected.
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As Intel CEO Bob Swan succinctly put it when I spoke with him about tech manufacturing in the U.S. (see “Why US-based semiconductor chip manufacturing is critical”), one of the potential downsides that technology-enhanced manufacturing can bring is the elimination of jobs previously done by people.
Still, Swan points to a rallying cry that has been gaining a tremendous amount of attention across the tech industry lately. “With the advancements in technologies that can replace some of these jobs, the responsibility for tech companies is how you prepare new workers for the future.”
Thankfully, many large tech companies are helping to do just that. Amazon, Microsoft, and Intel, among many others, have been responding to these major societal and business realignments with reskilling (learning new skills) and upskilling (learning additional skills) programs. They are providing new opportunities for people at every education and job experience level to gain new skills and find jobs with more promising futures.
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In most cases, tech companies have had these types of training programs in place for several years, but the pandemic moved them to the fore. As Ardine Williams, vice president of workforce development at Amazon, noted, “Millions of people across the U.S. and around the world are continuing to be severely impacted by the economic effects of COVID-19, with the need for skills training at an all-time high.”
In particular, there is a significant tech skills gap that exists now, which is expected to get worse in the future. Companies in the tech space need more skilled workers, so ultimately, they’re hoping to help themselves as well as other related companies that help drive the growth of the overall ecosystem.
And they’re doing it on a large scale. Just last week, for example, Amazon’s AWS (Amazon Web Services) cloud computing service business announced a program to provide education and training programs to 29 million people globally between now and 2025.
Through free programs like AWS Educate and AWS Training and Certifications, the company is hoping to advance the cloud computing skills of potential workers – even if they don’t currently work for or intend to work for Amazon.
Amazon announced a separate $700 million program last year to upskill its existing workers, including people who may start as entry-level warehouse workers, but want to move into better paying, more advanced jobs.
The e-retailer also has the AWS re/Start program, which is specifically designed for unemployed or underemployed individuals without any technical background to make the move into the tech industry.
And earlier this year, Microsoft announced an upskilling program that it hopes will allow 25 million people to be trained on tech-related skills by the end of this year.
For its part, Intel launched the first associate degree in Artificial Intelligence (AI) for community colleges in Arizona this semester, thereby opening up potentially lucrative new job opportunities and critical new skill sets to a much wider range of people.
What’s exciting about the range of new reskilling and upskilling options is that even people who never considered the idea of working for a tech company are now finding new employment options.
A recent study by Accenture found that many are at least willing to consider those changes, as 48{c25493dcd731343503a084f08c3848bd69f9f2f05db01633325a3fd40d9cc7a1} of the 6,125 global workers who participated said that COVID-19 has prompted them to consider a career change.
Even with the desire of a career change studies have shown that practical realities like transportation, childcare, and other basic issues often stifle the interests of people who might pursue these programs. Thankfully, in many cases, accommodations can be made to provide these programs at a current workplace or to cover the costs as needed, if a longer period of training is required at a community college or other site.
As people start to ponder how they can improve their lives post 2020 and in our, eventually, pandemic-free world, these reskilling and upskilling programs look like they could be useful and even life-changing opportunities. For the tech industry, let’s hope they represent a step towards a more inclusive and even more positive impact on our society.
USA TODAY columnist Bob O’Donnell is the president and chief analyst of TECHnalysis Research, a market research and consulting firm that provides strategic consulting and market research services to the technology industry and professional financial community. His clients are major technology firms including Microsoft, HP, Dell, Samsung and Intel. You can follow him on Twitter @bobodtech.
The views and opinions expressed in this column are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of USA TODAY.
