Snowflake (NYSE: SNOW), the AI Data Cloud company, today announced the launch of its One Million Minds + One Platform initiative. Backed by a $20 million Snowflake investment, the program aims to train and certify more than 100,000 users on the Snowflake AI Data Cloud by 2027 at no cost to learners, and to educate one million people in data and AI by 2029. The program will provide Snowflake-delivered training and certification courses to students and workers in emerging and high-growth markets around the world. By supplying curriculum resources for both learners and instructors, together with Snowflake credits for platform use, Snowflake seeks to unlock AI upskilling for the next generation of business and technology users so they can expand their capabilities and gain a competitive edge.
A 2024 Gallup survey reports that 22 percent of workers worry their jobs could become obsolete due to technological advances such as generative AI. The same study found that 72 percent of Fortune 500 CHROs expect AI to replace some roles within their organizations over the next three years. To remain competitive in today’s fast-evolving and highly contested job market, workers must build and broaden their skills with current technologies. Developing those skills helps candidates differentiate themselves and deliver valuable expertise to future startups and established companies.
“To succeed in this digital era, every worker must have the skills to contribute in a data- and AI-centered world,” said Sridhar Ramaswamy, CEO of Snowflake. “That means AI must be accessible to users of all skill levels, and those users must understand how AI applications operate across the data lifecycle and how best to engage with them. Through this investment, Snowflake gives academic institutions and workers across regions the tools and training to build successful careers as tomorrow’s technologists and founders.”
The One Million Minds + One Platform program targets students and workers who want to build or expand their skills and become certified on the Snowflake AI Data Cloud platform. The program has two principal tracks:
Snowflake for Academia
To equip the next generation of AI, data and application specialists, Snowflake will provide students with free access to Snowflake software, instructional materials, and a comprehensive, industry-aligned data curriculum plus teacher training. The Snowflake for Academia offering trains instructors to become Snowflake-certified and ready to teach in the classroom. Once certified, instructors receive teaching materials covering foundational courses through advanced, self-paced tutorials, and they gain free access to an Academia Lab for the entire term.
“Academia’s role is to expose students to the people, tools, and techniques they will encounter in the real world,” said Nate Crawford, Software Engineering & Data Science Faculty, University of St. Thomas. “Through the Snowflake for Academia curriculum and the provided Snowflake credits, we can deliver a robust course that equips students with the skills they need as they enter a rapidly changing job market. Early exposure to these technologies plants the seed for future leaders and supports the development of the competencies employers seek.”
Within the next year, Snowflake expects to more than double the total number of instructors and academic institutions worldwide that teach, train, and ultimately certify students on the Snowflake platform.
Snowflake Training for High-Growth and Emerging Markets
Snowflake will roll out new platform training designed for individuals with limited prior experience using Snowflake who want to expand their knowledge of the AI Data Cloud. These courses will be available to workers and students across ASEAN, Canada, Germany, India, Korea, LATAM, Saudi Arabia and other regions. The Snowflake Platform Training program is delivered by Snowflake-certified instructors and offers a step-by-step, live, free introductory course to give learners hands-on experience and the confidence to begin their organization’s data transformation journey.
Snowflake-certified instructors will guide participants through the AI Data Cloud architecture, covering data warehousing, data lakes, data engineering, AI/ML, data applications and data sharing. After completing the training, learners can pursue certification by successfully passing the SnowPro Platform Associate Certification, available starting February 2025, to validate their newly acquired skills. The certification covers practical competencies such as:
- Setting up and navigating Snowflake’s user interface and Snowflake Notebooks
- Creating databases, stages and compute resources
- Loading and working with structured, semi-structured and unstructured data
- Understanding Snowflake roles and data access management
- Managing the Snowflake account structure
- Calling Snowflake Cortex LLM capabilities
The One Million Minds + One Platform program is part of Snowflake’s broader education and upskilling strategy. Snowflake University offers instructor-led, on-demand and self-paced courses that have supported hundreds of thousands of data professionals in accelerating their data initiatives—whether they are just getting started or driving advanced data projects.
By combining no-cost access to platform resources, instructor-led training, validated certifications and academic partnerships, Snowflake’s initiative aims to lower barriers to entry for students and professionals seeking to build lasting careers in data and AI while helping employers access a deeper, more diverse talent pool equipped to meet the demands of an AI-driven economy.