Cloud based data storage technology company Snowflake said it has launched an ambitious free program to upskill one million people in data and artificial intelligence by 2029.
Called the One Million Minds + One Platform, the initiative aims to certify more than 100,000 users on the Snowflake AI Data Cloud by 2027, the company said.
It is backed by a US$20 million investment.
"To succeed in this digital age, every employee must be equipped with the skills that enable them to contribute in a data and AI-centric world," Sridhar Ramaswamy, chief executive officer of Snowflake said.
Recent data from Gallup shows 22 per cent of workers fear job obsolescence due to AI advancements, while 72 per cent of Fortune 500 chief human resources officers expect AI to replace some roles within three years.
"The role of academia is to expose students to the various kinds of tools and technologies they'll encounter in the real world," Nate Crawford, software engineering and data science faculty at the University of St Thomas in Minnesota, the United States, said.
The program includes two main components: Snowflake for Academia and Snowflake Training for High Growth and Emerging Markets.
The academic program provides educators with free access to software, training materials and certification courses.
Snowflake plans to expand its platform training across multiple regions including ASEAN, Canada, Germany, India, Korea, Latin America and Saudi Arabia.
A spokesperson for Snowflake said the program has gone live in Australia and New Zealand.
The company intends to double the enrollment of educators and academic institutions teaching Snowflake certification within the next year.
A new certification programme, launching in February 2025, will validate skills including AI data cloud architecture and Snowflake Cortex LLM functions.
The initiative forms part of Snowflake's broader education strategy through Snowflake University, which offers various learning pathways for data professionals.
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