6point6 Recruit For Amazon Training

Leeds-based tech company hires ex-military personnel re-skilled by Amazon Web Services training programme.

15:22 29 September 2018

Leeds-based 6point6 Cloud Gateway has hired ex-military personnel who have completed Amazon Web Service’s training and job placement programme. AWS re:Start has been launched by Amazon with the goal to educate young adults, reservists, military veterans and their spouses on cloud computing technologies and software development.

 

6point6’s newest recruit, Stewart Yapp, said: “After 13 years in the Intelligence Corps I was well-used to using IT, but like most people I had little experience of its nuts and bolts or building it.

 

“The Army helped me find the AWS re:Start programme, which was free to me and to every other Armed Forces veteran, and taught me about IT in the corporate world.  It’s a real boost to me, and to every veteran, to find that the skills I already have from serving, can be enhanced with new training to open up a whole new career for me.”

 

Neil Briscoe, 6point6 Cloud Gateway co-founder and CTO, added: “Long-term veterans typically come with a full range of life skills: work ethic, self-organisation, thinking on their feet, adaptability and focus on delivery.

 

“That alone makes them super-attractive to companies like 6point6 Cloud Gateway. We can always teach someone new technical skills, but only to a person who wants and knows how to learn and apply themselves.  That they’ve come through the AWS re:Start programme is even more of a bonus: we know they’re committed to a new career in IT, they’ve already learned at least the basics, and they’re ready to go. We are already on the lookout for more like Stewart.

 

“The AWS re:Start programme is a tremendous initiative and it’s a terrific opportunity for any company in the UK, especially the North West of England, that needs technology skills.  The region has long provided a high proportion of those men and women that join the UK’s Armed Forces, and when their service ends many of them naturally want to return to somewhere near their original home.”