Amazon is launching Amazon Future Engineer in the UK which they describe as a comprehensive childhood-to-career programme to inspire, educate and enable children and young adults to try computer science. By supporting the recruitment and training of 50 secondary school computer science teachers and over 200 ‘Careers Leaders’, launching robotics workshops for 10,000 children and creating other opportunities to experience computer science, Amazon Future Engineer is set to reach more than one million children and young people across the UK over the next two years.
Through Amazon Future Engineer, ten thousand primary school pupils will have the opportunity to take part in free robotics workshops at Amazon fulfilment centres across the UK over the next two years, learning to program robots which use similar technology to what is used by Amazon to fulfil customer orders. The workshops, created alongside Fire Tech, are designed to give children first-hand experience of how technology works in the real world and have been accredited by the British Science Association. Amazon will also embark on a road trip across the UK, bringing the robotics workshops to primary schools around the country.
Amazon has also helped create an interactive dance-themed online coding tutorial together with non-profit organisation Code.org, featuring songs from leading artists, with the aim of reaching a million children in the UK.
The only thing I don’t like about this program is that it’s limited to school pupils, it sounds fantastic and I’d be fascinated to go to one of the robotics workshops myself!
“Research shows the UK needs 21,000 more computer science graduates on average, every year, to meet the demands of the digital economy. By making computer science skills more widely accessible from childhood to career, we hope Amazon Future Engineer will inspire and empower young people, regardless of their background, to take up careers in computer science.”
– Doug Gurr, UK Country Manager, Amazon
Amazon is working with the education charity Teach First to support the recruitment and training of 50 secondary school computer science teachers. They will also support with the training of over 200 Teach First ‘Careers Leaders’, a programme run by the charity which supports leaders in schools to develop a long-term school-wide careers strategy to improve students’ opportunities.
The computer science teachers will be placed in schools serving low-income communities from next year and will have the opportunity to embark on paid work experience at Amazon.
“Today’s school pupils will go on to do jobs that don’t even exist yet because the world of technology and computing is progressing so quickly. This is why we’re making sure our schools and teachers equip young people with the skills and knowledge they’ll need to be successful in the future by expanding our IoT programme and investing an extra £14bn in schools over the next three years. The work of Amazon Future Engineer will support us in just that by harnessing Amazon’s reach and know-how to make sure that pupils from all backgrounds can access a cutting edge education and I look forward to seeing it in action.”
– Rt Hon Gavin Williamson CBE MP, Secretary of State for Education
Amazon Future Engineer is part of the Amazon in the Community programme, which aims to ensure more children and young adults have the resources and skills they need to build their best and brightest futures, especially those from low-income communities in the areas where Amazon has a physical presence.
