Amazon: Apprenticeship restarted my career after raising a family, says inspiring mum Sam Edwards

Sam Edwards works for Amazon in Wakefield and says a new career after raising a family has helped her to discover a new path

READ MORE: Amazon - Creating a role for everyone

Sam said: “Like many mums, my career stopped when my first child was born. Today, I’m training to become a mechatronics engineer alongside my husband and two of my children.

“This is my story.

“I was born in Doncaster, and I’ve lived in the city my whole life. I was never quite sure what I wanted to be when I grew up. I didn’t really enjoy school, and I decided to leave education during my A-Levels.

“I got a job in a coffee shop while I tried to figure things out. It was a great job – it gave me flexibility and money to go out at the weekend. A few years later, I became pregnant with my first child and decided to become a stay-at-home mum.

“My husband, who had previously completed an apprenticeship, was working full-time and we made the decision to grow our family. We had two more children, and we supported each other in a way that many families do – I took on the role of primary caregiver at home, while my husband supported us financially through his job.

“Twelve years after leaving my job and career, I started to think about going back to paid work. My children were all at school, and I had a little more time, so I wanted to see if I could re-start my career. I took a job at the coffee shop that I used to work in. It was fantastic – the team was flexible if one of the kids was sick, and it was also close to their school.

“After almost five years at the coffee shop, I began to wonder if there was something else out there for me. My husband was working at Amazon, and my eldest son James had just joined Amazon as an apprentice. The more James told me about his apprenticeship, the more I started to wonder – could I do something similar?

“I thought about applying for an apprenticeship with Amazon. I had one small problem though – I didn’t have any industrial experience, which was one of the only requirements for the programme I wanted to join. I was determined to push myself and try to get on the apprenticeship programme, so I took a job for a year as a cleaner in a factory.

“That role gave me the experience I needed to apply for an Amazon apprenticeship but, more crucially, it also gave me some confidence.

“So, off I go to Amazon. How did it feel on day one? I was petrified. Anyone who has had a career break for a long time knows what it feels like to go back. I’d say to myself, “What am I doing here? I don’t have a clue. I’m the tiniest fish in a huge ocean.”

‘The Amazon Apprenticeship programme means you get hands-on experience, but you also learn through a college. You can imagine my thought process back then”.

Me. Back at college.

“The kids in my class are 19. I’m 42. I haven’t written an essay in more than 20 years.

“What am I doing here? I’d never had a job with a laptop. I’d worked as a cleaner. I worked in a coffee shop. These kids around me are so technical. They’re so far ahead of me.

“However, those kids supported me. They quickly became my colleagues and friends. They welcomed me, showed me how to do things on computers. They gave me hope when my confidence needed it.

“That was almost two years ago. Where am I today?

“I feel confident. On the right path. Doing something for me.

“It’s incredible to think that soon, I will be a fully qualified mechatronics engineer. If it wasn’t for programmes like apprenticeships at Amazon, I wouldn’t be able to achieve that.

“Apprenticeships can be a fantastic way to find your way back to a career after time away. I know a fellow apprentice here at Amazon. She’s a single mum. She has nobody to fall back on at home and she’s just going for it. I’m so proud of her.

“Apprenticeships really are for everyone. Whether you’ve just left school, or you’re changing careers in your 50s, I don’t think there’s a better way to learn, earn and grow as a person. It can set you on a path to a future your old self could only dream of.

“And what about my future? I get asked a lot about that. My answer is always the same. I love my job at Amazon. It’s well paid, it’s safe, it’s clean and the people are fantastic. The company has had an incredibly positive impact on my home city for many, many years and there’s nowhere else I’d rather be.

“My husband works for Amazon. Two of my children work for Amazon. My youngest is also planning to join the Amazon apprenticeship programme when he turns 18.

“I’m so happy for my family to work here. I can pay it no higher compliment than that.

Find out more about Amazon apprenticeships here.