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Kentucky Initiative Prepares Students for Cloud Careers

With the industry poised for massive growth, Kentucky’s schools, as well as nonprofit and private partners, are working to bolster the future cloud workforce.

Juliet Van Wagenen

Juliet is the senior web editor for StateTech and HealthTech magazines. In her six years as a journalist she has covered everything from aerospace to indie music reviews — but she is unfailingly partial to covering technology.

Across the country, science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) programs in schools are gearing up to train students for the future workforce, one that will hold 1.3 million computer and mathematical job opportunities by 2022.

And while many public school programs are teaming up with local governments to train students for cybersecurity or IT, the state of Kentucky is looking to jumpstart a workforce in something a bit different: the cloud.

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Kentucky Calls on STEM Curricula to Boost Cloud Knowledge

Through a new initiative for K–12 and higher education students, known as Kentucky Cloud Careers Pathway, the Kentucky Department of Education and other state parties are working with Project Lead the Way to develop curriculum to ultimately create a cloud-enabled workforce.

Why cloud? With businesses, schools, government agencies and more adopting cloud at increasing rates, cloud computing is proving to be a booming industry, and one that is poised for massive growth in coming years. In fact, forecasts expect the cloud computing market to increase from $67 billion in 2015 to $162 billion in 2020.

Moreover, public cloud spending is expected to grow 18 percent in 2017 alone, and a recent IDC report found that spending for cloud computing is growing at 4.5 times the rate of all other IT spending.

All this growth means there will be massive job opportunities in the industry in coming years, one that the state of Kentucky wants to ensure its younger workforce is prepared to fill.

“The technological transformation occurring globally is changing the way we live and work at an unprecedented pace,” said Gov. Matt Bevin, Middlesboro Daily News reports. “Kentucky must be a leader in preparing our students and existing workforce to capitalize on the many job opportunities that innovation in technology is creating.”

According to Campus Technology, the program will use STEM curricula from nonprofit partner Project Lead the Way to teach cloud computing skills to students and instructors. Meanwhile, private cloud partners will help to map job opportunities for those with a skill set in cloud.

“It is a goal of this administration to establish Kentucky as a national model for harnessing the benefits of a cloud-enabled workforce and economy,” said Hal Heiner, secretary of the Kentucky Education and Workforce Development Cabinet. “To meet this goal, collaboration among the government, education, non-profit, and the private sector is required.”

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