Amazon Web Services (AWS) has launched an interactive, game-based learning tool designed to help individuals and organisations develop the skills they need to build solutions for common use cases in their industry.
Called AWS Industry Quest, the new solution aims to reduce the widening digital skills gap when the current pandemic brought about accelerated digital transformation among many organisations.
This new announcement is part of AWS’s ongoing efforts in helping organizations of all sizes to close skills gap. Since 2017, AWS has trained over 5 million people across APAC with cloud skills.
In Hong Kong, AWS is pushing for AWS Industry Quest: Financial Services to enable FSI professionals to learn and build solutions for fraud prevention, data lakes for financial services, serverless deposit accounts, and more—with more industries to come.
“We are committed to helping Hong Kong transform into an international innovation hub and, in order to achieve this goal, specialist skills training is a priority amid the global digital skills shortage,” said Robert Wang, managing director at AWS Hong Kong & Taiwan.
“We look forward to helping learners and customers in financial services in Hong Kong build the right skills to innovate with the cloud, and have fun doing it.”
Robert Wang, AWS Hong Kong and Taiwan
The demand for specialist skills was highlighted in a recent survey published by KPMG in January 2022, which showed that specialist talent availability is one of the key concerns of the banking industry in Hong Kong. In order to combat this talent shortage, it is important for businesses to make digital skills training a priority.
AWS Industry Quest is available in AWS Skill Builder, the company’s digital learning centre, as part of the Skill Builder subscriptions. These subscriptions, available for individual learners and organisations in markets including Hong Kong, offer engaging, experiential learning to provide practical experience with AWS.
“We have seen great success with companies around the world using game-based interactive learning to upskill their employees, which is why we are so excited about the launch of the first AWS Industry Quest designed for the Financial Services industry,” said Wang.
In AWS Industry Quest: Financial Services, players personalise their avatar, take over a virtual financial services firm, rebrand it, and by completing solution-building exercises, boost the company to industry leader status. Each solution takes approximately one hour to complete. Players have quick access to over 20 solutions, curated based on feedback from AWS industry experts and financial services customers, which can be completed in any order.
Each Industry Quest assignment begins with a challenge brief describing the firm’s problem, learning objectives, and a list of potential rewards. Using an in-game console environment, players learn how to build the solution, then apply their knowledge to complete it on their own.
When players successfully complete a solution, they increase the firm’s key performance indicators (KPIs), earn rewards to unlock new workspace furniture and decor to customize their space, and watch it grow from a one-story office to a multi-level building. Players who want to share their progress with their networks can use the selfie cam feature to showcase their avatar in their evolving office, or complete all of the solution exercises to receive a verifiable digital badge from AWS.
AWS Industry Quest: Financial Services is available in English for personal computers through the AWS Skill Builder subscriptions.
