An apprentice from Rugeley is calling on local people and his fellow colleagues to pursue the career they have always wanted by applying for an apprenticeship.
Jacob Harper from Stoke-on-Trent is an electrical and mechanical maintenance apprentice working at Amazon in Rugeley.
He started his apprenticeship with Amazon in September 2016 and is working towards a qualification to become an electrical and mechanical maintenance engineer after three years of training study with Amazon and Midland Group Training Services in Coventry and Newcastle-under-Lyme College.
It’s been great to get an understanding of how all the electrical equipment in an Amazon fulfilment centre works
Discussing why he applied for the apprenticeship, Jacob said: “I’ve wanted to be an engineer since I was about twelve or thirteen-years-old. My dad is an electrical engineer and when I was young, we’d always be doing DIY jobs around the house together. Lots of my relatives are engineers so it definitely runs in the family.”
“The opportunity to work for a company like Amazon was a big attraction for me. Combine that with the training, financial backing and the huge scale of work and it’s pretty much the dream opportunity for me.”
So far, Jacob has most enjoyed the electrical work he has been learning about. “It’s been great to get an understanding of how all the electrical equipment in an Amazon fulfilment centre works, and how it comes together to make sure the site runs efficiently,” he said.
Jacob is one of over 300 apprentices currently working at Amazon in the UK. Amazon has announced it will create a further 1,000 new apprenticeships for new and existing employees in fulfilment centres and development centres across the country. The new apprentices will add to over 27,500 permanent employees currently in the UK, with pay ranging from an entry level starting salary of £9.50/£10.50 an hour, up to £30,000 a year.
Nine different programmes are on offer across the country to people of all levels, ranging from IT, safety and HR through to software engineering, robotics, leadership and technology.
Two-in-every-ten new apprenticeships will be offered exclusively to Amazon’s existing workforce, providing a route from working on the shop floor through to working on cutting-edge software development, robotics technology and senior leadership roles in the business.
In addition to being fully-funded, apprentices also receive industry-leading benefits including competitive pay, employee discounts, private medical insurance and company pension plan.
For anyone thinking about applying for a place on the Amazon Apprenticeship Programme, Jacob has some advice: “Go for it. An apprenticeship like the one I’m doing with Amazon is a great opportunity to join a top company and have a brilliant career.”
To find out more about the Amazon Apprenticeship Programme visit www.amazon.jobs/apprentices
