The AWS Training and Certification team recently released the new AWS Certified Machine Learning Engineer Associate MLA-C01 exam along with the AWS Certified AI Practitioner AIF-C01 test this June 2024. This new role-based, Associate-level AWS certification exam will allow you to validate your machine learning skills to your current or future employer as well as improve your AI know-how in relation to AWS. You can be among the first-ever batch of IT professionals worldwide to earn this new certification when registration opens on August 13, 2024.

AWS Certified Machine Learning Engineer Associate MLA-C01 Beta Exam Overview

The AWS Certified Machine Learning Engineer Associate MLA-C01 exam is suitable for individuals who have at least 1 year of experience in machine learning (ML) engineering or a related field. Having a year of hands-on experience with various ML-related AWS services is also recommended. If you do not have prior machine learning experience, you can take the recommended courses available in the Exam Prep section of this article to help you kick off your training.

 

The beta version of the AWS Certified Machine Learning Engineer Associate MLA-C01 exam lasts 170 minutes and consists of 85 questions. The exam costs 75 USD or 10,000 JPY but may vary to other countries. The MLA-C01 certification exam is ideal for professionals in IT roles such as backend software developers, DevOps engineers, data engineers, MLOps engineers, and data scientists. You can take this new exam either at any Pearson VUE testing center or as an online proctored exam using the OnVue app. The MLA-C01 certification is available in both English and Japanese for now, but other languages will be available in the future.

 

 

Acquiring this certification will truly validate your technical ability to implement ML workloads in production as well as to operationalize or improve your ML pipeline. Your career profile and credibility would be upgraded if you are able to position yourself for in-demand machine learning job roles much earlier.

Is the AWS Certified Machine Learning Engineer Associate MLA-C01 Beta Exam Worth it?

There are many IT professionals, or even students/career shifters, who claim that they are knowledgeable about the concepts of Artificial Intelligence but could not even build the most basic Machine Learning solution. Most people would know how to use it, especially ChatGPT, but it does not mean these individuals are capable of building applications that are beneficial to companies.

This certification can serve as a tool to easily filter dodgy candidates/job seekers who just put “AI”, “Machine Learning,” and other buzz words in their CVs yet don’t possess the relevant knowledge or skill about the subject matter. The AWS Certified AI Practitioner AIF-C01 exam also provides an entry point for interested career shifters or even experienced IT folks to truly learn about AI as well as how to easily build ML solutions by leveraging the power of cloud computing.

Exam Prep Materials for the AWS Certified Machine Learning Engineer Associate MLA-C01 Exam

You are in luck, as there are a lot of free resources that you can use to prepare for this exam. Interested IT professionals can enroll in various free and premium digital courses to fill gaps in their knowledge and skills. Our team has compiled a list of recommended courses that you can check out which we will update regularly.

Additionally, visit the official AWS Certification page for the AWS Certified Machine Learning Engineer Associate MLA-C01 beta exam. This page provides the most up-to-date information, including the link to schedule your beta exam, as well as access to the official Exam Guide and Sample Questions. 

There are digital courses for Machine Learning available in the Tutorials Dojo portal (in collaboration with AWS): https://portal.tutorialsdojo.com/product-tag/machine-learning/

Courses from the AWS Skill Builder site:

• MLA-C01 Standard Exam Prep Plan – Includes only free resources.
• MLA-C01 Enhanced Exam Prep Plan – (Paid) Includes free resources and additional content for AWS Skill Builder subscribers, such as AWS Builder Labs, game-based learning, Official Pretests, and more exam-style questions. Available starting August 13, 2024.

Heads Up! AWS has recently announced that AWS Certification is introducing three new question types: ordering, matching, and case study. These will complement the existing multiple-choice and multiple-response questions, helping to reduce your reading time and assess additional critical concepts.

For more details, read the blog post: AWS Certification: New Exam Question Types.

How Different is the Existing MLS-C01 AWS Specialty Certification from the New MLA-C01 Associate Exam?

The new AWS Certified Machine Learning Engineer – Associate MLA-C01 exam is an ML role-based certification designed for IT Professionals such as MLOps engineers with at least a year of experience. On the other hand, the AWS Certified Machine Learning – Specialty MLS-C01 is a specialty certification covering much more advanced ML topics across data engineering, data analysis, modeling, and ML implementation and ops. The latter is more suitable for individuals with more than 2 years of experience developing, architecting, and running ML workloads on AWS.

How Will the AWS Certified Machine Learning Engineer Associate MLA-C01 Help My Career?

Based on the recent World Economic Forum Future of Jobs Report in 2023:

• The demand for AI and Machine Learning Specialists is likely to grow by 40% in the next couple of years.
• 70% of IT leaders in North America have expressed difficulty filling AI/ML specialist roles in their respective organizations.

In a related November 2023 research conducted by AWS, companies are willing to pay:

• 43% more for ML-skilled workers in areas of sales and marketing,
• 42% more for those in the finance/banking industry

• 41% more for business enterprise operations,
• 47% more for the general IT professional salary range

The MLA-C01 certification can really position you for in-demand machine learning jobs, especially for opportunities that require extensive experience in the AWS Cloud.

What other AWS Certifications Should I Earn Next?

• Cloud Careers: AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate SAA-C03.
• Data, AI, and ML Careers:
  • AWS Certified Data Engineer – Associate DEA-C01

Achieve greater heights for your career with an AWS Certified Machine Learning Engineer Associate MLA-C01 certification!