A DHL team lead and a hardware test engineer from Nottingham are sharing their career stories during Learning at Work Week 2024 (13th-19th May) to celebrate the career progress they’ve made thanks to the lifelong learning programmes at Amazon.
Learning at Work Week is an annual programme run by the charity Campaign for Learning. The charity works with organisations around the UK to create activities and fun challenges in the workplace to help employees learn and grow.
This year’s theme, Learning power, explores how lifelong and continual learning gives people power to change, grow and achieve individual, team and organisational goals.
Simona Jarda, (pictured above) who works at DHL East Midlands, and Bohumil Kolouch, a Nottingham-based engineer, used Amazon’s development and training opportunities to shape their professional careers.
One of the programmes the pair took part in at Amazon is Amazon Career Choice. The programme, which has been running at Amazon for the past decade, 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.
Courses available include accountancy, HGV driving and software development, and are designed to help employees build careers at Amazon or elsewhere. It means that eligible employees are given the opportunity to gain the skills and qualifications needed to follow their career aspirations.
Simona, who used the programme to help secure her role as a team lead at DHL, has shared her story to encourage others to take their career to the next level using the Amazon Career Choice programme.
Simona lives in Long Eaton and is a team lead at DHL East Midlands. Before joining DHL, Simona worked at Amazon, and used the company’s Career Choice programme to gain a qualification that boosted her career progression.
“I joined Amazon in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic and didn’t expect to stay as long as I did,” Simona said. “In the two years I worked at the Amazon fulfilment centre in Kegworth, I was given the chance to progress and engage with internal learning opportunities that made me believe in myself, and the company.
“Whilst at Amazon I completed a Career Choice programme that gave me a qualification in human resources. Getting that allowed me to update my CV and move on to new opportunities outside of Amazon. I’ve wanted to be a team leader for a long time, and thanks to Career Choice I now have that role at DHL.”
Outside of work, Simona is studying towards a degree in management and marketing. Whilst she’s happy to take her time on her career journey, she hopes it will one day help her achieve a management role.
What advice does Simona give to people hoping to boost their careers? Trust the process.
“If you take courses and work towards your professional development, you will see success. Trust that you can make it.”
Bohumil also secured his dream job thanks to Amazon Career Choice.
Bohumil works at Agilitas IT Solutions as a hardware test engineer. He’s worked at the company for six months and used the career development opportunities at his previous job at Amazon to secure his dream role working with computers.
Before joining Agilitas IT Solutions, Bohumil worked at the Amazon fulfilment centre in Kegworth for five years. He joined the team when the Kegworth site opened in 2019.
At Amazon in Kegworth, Bohumil participated in Amazon Career Choice to gain a diploma in IT support engineering. Bohumil’s training was delivered by Peterborough-based Pitman Training.
Bohumil had always wanted to work with technology, and the opportunity to work a steady job whilst studying for a new qualification really appealed to him.
“Doing Amazon Career Choice gave me the chance to change career and get a job in my dream field, with the qualifications I needed to back my progression,” said Bohumil. “I had experience in IT from helping out family and friends with their computers, but doing Amazon Career Choice meant that I had skills that made me stand out in interviews when I applied for roles outside of Amazon.
“Amazon Career Choice is about allowing people to do what they love. Once you complete your course, you’re free to move on to new opportunities, like I did, and Amazon supports you as you do so.
“The natural path of progression for me after doing Career Choice was to move to a full-time role in IT, and that happened to be at Agilitas IT Solutions. When I moved to the UK from Slovakia seeking better prospects for my family, I knew Amazon would provide that. Working at Amazon and taking part in Career Choice has enabled me to have the career I have today, and I’m really grateful for the support I received during my time with the company.”
Amazon also provides opportunities to improve existing skills or learn new ones through internal career progression opportunities such as apprenticeships, transferring to a different department and promotion to a managerial role.
Amazon Kegworth General Manager, Vivek Khanka, added: “We are proud of Simona and Bohumil’s success through the Amazon Career Choice programme. Career development is at the core of our culture at Amazon, where lifelong learning is promoted at every turn. Many of our team members have taken part in Career Choice and are now fulfilling their potential on Amazon teams all over the UK, Ireland and further afield. Others have gone on to successful careers elsewhere, and we are proud to have supported them in their professional development by giving them extra tools for success in their new roles. We look forward to offering employees even more choices in the future as Amazon Career Choice evolves and grows.”
Amazon employees receive competitive pay and comprehensive benefits. Pay starts at a minimum of £12.30 per hour in Kegworth and employees are offered a comprehensive benefits package, including private medical insurance, life assurance, income protection and an employee discount 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 a second consecutive year.
In 2023, Amazon ranked in second place on LinkedIn’s Top Companies list — an annual list that identifies the most sought-after places to work and grow your career in the UK. Using data from LinkedIn’s 900 million members, LinkedIn’s Top Companies list is designed to help professionals identify the best companies to grow their careers.
To find out more about a career with Amazon, visit Amazon Jobs.