Dive Brief:

• Tech giant Amazon is focused on closing the skills gap and creating jobs for veterans with a new apprenticeship program, TechCrunch reports. The US Labor Dept. will partner with Amazon in this effort, according to an agency press release.
• This official announcement comes after Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said in May 2016 that the company aimed to hire 25,000 military veterans and spouses over a five-year period. Per TechCrunch, some 200 colleges, labor organizations and employers will participate in the initiative. 
• A similar job-readiness program, called re:Start, has been launched by Amazon's UK division in coordination with the Ministry of Defense, Prince’s Trust and QA Consulting. This program supports jobs in cloud-based tech.

Dive Insight:

Amazon is taking positive steps towards offering apprenticeships to military veterans (and their spouses) looking to get started in the tech industry. The program solves two problems at once: A lack of qualified specialists in IT, and a lack of training for the fastest growing technical careers.

By working closely with the DOL, Amazon has positioned itself well for retaining the best of these new apprentices while providing a fresh crop of skilled technical employees to partner firms. But apprenticeships are proven fix for skill gaps across industries, meaning Amazon isn't the only organization that could benefits from such a program. 

There are multiple ways to implement an apprenticeship program to bring potential hires up to speed fast. Military personnel and their spouses easily adapt to learning, which makes them ideal apprenticeship hires.