Apprentice helps Amazon celebrate 1,000 new apprenticeships for 2024

Northampton-based Lakan Brown has enjoyed eight years of career progression at Amazon. Since starting at the company as a temporary employee in 2015, Lakan has gained qualifications in engineering that have allowed him to climb to the reliability maintenance engineering (RME) technician role he’s in today at Amazon’s sortation centre in Milton Keynes.

Last year, Lakan completed Amazon’s Mechatronics apprenticeship, a four-year joint skills course for mechanical and electrical engineering. Prior to embarking on the apprenticeship, Lakan completed his level three qualification to become an electrician through Amazon Career Choice, an initiative that pre-pays 95% of tuition for courses in high-demand fields, up to £8,000 over four years.

Speaking on his career journey, Lakan said: “When I was younger, I wanted to be an electrician, but I couldn’t find an apprenticeship to complete my level three qualification, which used to be the required route into the profession. I took a job in Toys R Us after that and worked my way up to management, which I gained great professional skills from.

"Eventually I wanted a career change and decided to look into logistics. A position opened at Amazon, and once I’d weighed up whether it would be worth starting at the bottom of the ladder again or not, I decided to take it. Just a few days in to working in the packing department, I found that I absolutely loved it.

“My managers saw potential in me and encouraged me to keep trying to progress, which I did pretty quickly. I eventually ended up as a step-up manager and loved that just as much as I had working on the fulfilment centre floor. It not only gave me the opportunity to put my management skills to use, but to also get to know the diverse, interesting people that were on my team.”

Although he was enjoying his new role at Amazon, Lakan couldn’t stop thinking about his unfinished plans to become an electrician. He looked into ways to gain the final qualification needed and that’s when he was made aware of Amazon Career Choice.

He continued: “A few years into my career, I made the decision to continue in a less senior role at Amazon and go back to school. After that, I started into looking what else I could do, and was pointed in the direction of apprenticeships by one of the RME managers at Amazon’s fulfilment centre in Milton Keynes.

“I completed it last year, took a role at Amazon’s sortation centre in Milton Keynes, and here I am – using the skills I learned being an electrician and my Amazon knowledge. I also became a dad during the apprenticeship, so it’s been a busy few years!”

Sharing his favourite things about working at Amazon, Lakan said: “The development processes Amazon have in place are unbelievable. Just look at me! You can rise as fast as you want through the company, and you can move to different departments to find your best fit role. The culture is phenomenal too, and the fast-paced nature of the work means you learn every day.”

What’s Lakan’s advice for anyone thinking about applying for an apprenticeship? “Go into it being committed and strong-willed. When I was younger I didn’t really stick at anything, I just moved on to the next thing if something didn’t work. The apprenticeship has taught me that you create a drive in yourself to achieve your goals. There’s so much support everywhere you go, too – use it.”

Amazon offers one of the UK’s top private sector apprenticeship schemes according to the Top 100 Apprenticeship Employers[1], including entry-level placements and more than 230 degree-level apprenticeships in programmes including accounting and data analysts.

Recruitment has now started for more than 30 different schemes, from sustainability to engineering, project management to product buying, and warehouse team leaders to health and safety technicians.

This year, Amazon is also launching new programmes including the digital product manager apprenticeship and the commercial procurement and supply apprenticeship. The range of different apprenticeship schemes reflect both Amazon’s diverse workforce and the communities it serves every day across the UK.

As well as offering hundreds of new roles to external candidates, more than half of the new apprenticeships will be offered to existing employees who will have the opportunity to retrain and gain new skills for an exciting new career path. In 2023, two thirds (67%) of new apprentices at Amazon were aged 25 and over, an increase of 10% year on year, which demonstrates the support apprenticeships provide in helping people pursue new careers.

Nicola Drury, Head of Skills and Apprenticeships at Amazon, said: “Every year we look forward to recruiting ambitious and enthusiastic apprentices to join our teams working to deliver for customers all over the UK. Whether they’re retraining to begin a new and exciting career, or gaining new skills to take their career in a new direction, we’re proud to provide opportunities for people to find their dream roles.”

The 1,000 new apprenticeships highlight Amazon’s ongoing commitment to creating jobs and training opportunities for people across the UK. Once qualified, apprentices will have the opportunity to work across Amazon’s UK sites including fulfilment centres, delivery stations, sortation centres as well as corporate offices in London and Manchester, and four development centres in Cambridge, Edinburgh, London, and Swansea.

Amazon apprentices work across a wide variety of different schemes in hundreds of teams, from software developers in Prime Video, buyers in fashion, and production in Amazon Studios. This year apprentices could be a solutions architect in Amazon Web Services, a marketer in Amazon Music, or work with cutting-edge technology in operations as an engineer.

Since 2021, Amazon has pledged £8m supporting over 400 SMEs with apprenticeships via the apprenticeship levy transfer service. To date, Amazon has supported over 750 apprentices across a wide range of schemes including adult care, data, dental nurses and broadcast production assistants.

In addition to the apprenticeship schemes, Amazon employees can also take advantage of Amazon’s pioneering Career Choice programme, which pre-pays up to 95% of tuition and fees 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.

Competitive pay, comprehensive benefits and a modern, safe and engaging work environment is provided for its employees. The roles pay a minimum of £11.80 or £12.50 per hour, rising from April to between £12.30 and £13 per hour, depending on location, and up to £33,500 a year for degree-level apprenticeships. All employees also receive a benefits package that includes private medical insurance, life assurance, income protection, and an employee discount – which combined are worth thousands annually – as well as a company pension plan.

Amazon has been named as a ‘Top Employer UK 2024’ by the Top Employer Institute, one of the world’s most prestigious certifications in the field of human resources management. This award recognises Amazon’s commitment to the development and well-being of its employees. In addition to the UK accolade, Amazon has also been certified as one of the Top Employers in Europe for the second consecutive year. https://www.aboutamazon.co.uk/news/top-employer-2024

Applications are now open for Amazon’s apprenticeship programme. For more information, visit: www.amazonapprenticeships.co.uk

[1] https://topapprenticeshipemployers.co.uk/files/Top100AE23.pdf