Hassan recalls telling her that he needed six months to learn how to run a tech-training company on the model that she was proposing and to wind down his other businesses, with the condition that he would need to have his first paying customer within the same timeframe.

Hassan, his brother, and their friend Salad built a network, took trainings, and made connections with companies, eventually including Microsoft, which became a partner in the program.

“We had our first client in four months,” Hassan says with a laugh. It was a major Norwegian bank that committed to taking a graduate of the program for a one-year contract.

Henriette Dolven is the education lead for Microsoft Norway, and she is one of the company’s leaders who supported the Amesto Aces program.

Seven Norwegian labor and trade organizations for the tech industry collaborated on a study

on the need for tech labor skills in the country by 2030, according to Dolven. “It confirmed we needed 40,000 people for tech jobs by 2030, and it was clear there aren’t enough tech graduates to fill those positions,” she says.

“It was then that we realized that the Amesto Aces program could potentially be a valuable tool to help fill that labor gap,” Dolven said.

She and her colleagues began meeting with Hassan and the other leaders of Aces to see how Microsoft could help improve the program.

“The first skilling program was on cybersecurity, and it was all based on Microsoft Learn, so the content was there,” she recalls. “But the Amesto Aces used their skills to give it structure, put the different kinds of learning modules together, and combine with the social skills training they provide,” Dolven said.

In addition to training participants in particular kinds of developing and programming, Amesto Aces trains its students in “soft skills,” – how to present themselves for work and how to be a good employee.

“For me it’s kind of building upon the Microsoft values of inclusiveness – being a part of something meaningful,” Dolven says.

Spandow says the program echoes the roots of the Amesto Group, which in its earliest version was founded by her grandmother after World War II, when she created a company that served as a secretarial firm for companies short on employees – introducing women into the labor force, while filling a labor gap. “In a way Amesto Aces brings it full circle,” she says.

Since its beginnings, the training program has had 61 participants, and 36 have completed all certifications. Seven are completing the course currently.

Twelve other participants have secured full-time jobs after fulfilling their contracts, she says. Six have found other IT jobs, and nine have found non-IT jobs.

According to
characteristics
of the participants, nine were women, and 29 had immigrant backgrounds.

The main objective of the program is to expand it to other Norwegian cities and eventually to the other Nordic countries, Spandow says.


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