Amazon Web Services (AWS), Amazon Music, Shakira's Fundación Pies Descalzos, and Laboratoria have launched AWS Entrena Latinas, a free Spanish-language programme offering training in AI and cloud computing to women across Latin America, with a target of reaching one million participants by 2028.
The programme begins in Colombia, where students and mothers connected to Fundación Pies Descalzos will have access to introductory courses and a pathway to official AWS AI certifications credentials that can be added to CVs and shared publicly as verified proof of skills.
The initiative has a documented gap to address. After AWS launched its broader AWS Entrena LATAM programme in 2025, only around 30% of enrolees were women, according to data cited by Amazon. AWS Entrena Latinas is a direct response to that imbalance.
Laboratoria, a Latin American organisation that has trained more than 14,000 women for digital careers since 2014 and now operates in 11 countries, is providing the pedagogical methodology. Amazon supplies the cloud and AI content infrastructure and issues the certifications. Fundación Pies Descalzos, which Shakira established in 1997, brings access to communities outside the traditional tech pipeline. AWS Entrena Latinas sits within Las Mujeres Ayudan con Amazon Music, a broader initiative connected to Amazon Music's The Women Shaping Latin Music campaign.
The programme is free and conducted entirely in Spanish. Interested women can register at latinas.awsentrena.com. No date has been announced for expansion beyond Colombia's initial cohort.
The announcement signals a broadening definition of what counts as baseline technical literacy. As AI fluency becomes a standard hiring criterion across sectors not just in software, programmes that award recognised, stackable credentials at scale are likely to influence how employers in the region assess and recruit talent.
Source : Amazon US Press Center
