Retailer sets staff Prime goal to enhance their careers

Internet giant Amazon has embarked on a new initiative to help hundreds of Peterborough staff enhance their careers. The online retailer, which employs about 2,000 people at its fulfilment centre in Kingston Park, has teamed up with the Campaign for Learning during its Learning at Work Week.

The theme for the week was Learning Journeys, which aims to encourage collaboration, training and development to help people to achieve new experiences inside and outside work.

One initiative Amazon offers employees is an innovative programme called Career Choice, which pre-pays 95per cent of tuition for courses in high- demand fields, up to £8,000 over four years, regardless of whether the skills are relevant to a career at Amazon.

Amazon has also recruited more than 700 apprentices this year, helping young people begin their careers in fields ranging from automation engineering and IT to digital marketing and fashion buying, with pay of up to £30,000 a year for degree-level apprenticeships.

Amazon also provides opportunities to improve existing skills or learn new ones through internal career progression opportunities such as cross-training, transferring to adifferent department andp romotion into a managerial role.

Naj Mahmood, the site’s health and safety manager (pictured above) who has worked for Amazon for more than 10 years, has seen his role change as a result of his ongoing learning and training.

He said: “Early in my Amazon career, the company supported me through my NVQL5 in Occupational Health and Safety, in the following years the company also supported me on additionalsafety courses such as NEBOSH Fire safety certificate and NEBOSH Environmental Certificate.

“On- going learning has meant I’ve been able to take on a variety of different tasks – I’ve helped launch new fulfilment centres around the UK and the rest of Europe, and worked on many projects, most recent of which has led me to become an expert on PPE in the workplace.”

Centre general manager Victor Pulido said: “Naj’s progress at Amazon has been inspiring for us all andit’s fantastic to see how he has grown since joining us.

“We pride ourselves on offering colleagues opportunities to grow and learn through a variety of development programmes.”

Julia Wright, national director, Campaign for Learning said: “It’s great to see how Amazon is supporting colleagues to develop at work through apprenticeships, Career Choice and internal career progression.”

Amazon is currently recruiting about 300 people a week for its Peterborough fulfilment centre ahead of the busy seasonal period.

Forall full-time, part-time, temporary and seasonal employees pay at Amazon starts at £9.70 per hour.

Staff are offered a comprehensive benefits package, including private medical insurance, life assurance, income protection, subsidised meals and an employee discount and company pension plan.