Training, education and opportunity at Amazon in Yorkshire
Amazon opened the doors of its first fulfilment centre in Yorkshire in 2010.
The first site to open was in Doncaster and since then, Amazon has created more than 5,000 full and part-time jobs in multiple operations buildings across Leeds, Hull, Sheffield, Doncaster and Wakefield.
More than 1,300 people in Yorkshire have completed Amazon’s employability skills training programme, while the company has created around 250 apprentices in Yorkshire.
Amazon offers many training and development pathways for employees and two of the most popular programmes in Yorkshire are Career Choice and the Amazon Apprenticeship programme.
Career Choice
Career Choice, which has been running at Amazon for the past decade in the UK, covers up to £8,000 of training costs to secure nationally recognised qualifications in areas like environmental technology, IT, human resources, accounting, language skills, or HGV driving.
Laura Vieru works at Amazon in Doncaster and has been with the company for nine years. Laura has taken part in two Career Choice programmes.
Laura’s Amazon career started at the company’s fulfilment centre in Dunstable. She said she didn’t speak English very well at the time, and whilst she knew about Career Choice, she was too nervous to sign herself up for a programme because she saw her language skills as a learning barrier.
After a few years, Laura transferred to one of Amazon’s fulfilment centres in Doncaster. Here, most of her colleagues were enrolled on Career Choice programmes and she was inspired to take part in one herself. Laura said her English had improved, and she felt it was time to make her move.
At the time, Laura was working as a learning and development instructor. She enrolled on a human resources (HR) assistant diploma through Career Choice to learn about how HR and learning and development work together. Last year, Laura completed a second Career Choice programme, this time in people management.
Amazon Apprenticeship programme
Since the launch of the Amazon Apprenticeship programme in 2013, Amazon has offered 7,000 apprenticeships in the UK.
There are currently around 2,000 apprentices in the programme, making it one of the largest and broadest apprenticeship schemes in the UK. Since 2021, Amazon has committed £11 million to supporting 650 small and medium-sized businesses, third sector organisations, and public sector bodies including the NHS with more than 1,000 apprenticeships. This is through the apprenticeship levy transfer scheme, across a wide range of schemes including adult care, data, dental nurses and broadcast production assistants.
Matthew Burd has worked at Amazon in Doncaster for 14 years. Matthew started an apprenticeship in Safety, Health and Environment in 2024 through the Amazon Apprenticeship programme and will complete his course in 2026.
When Matthew – who is one of Amazon’s longest serving employees in Doncaster – left school, he did a two-year apprenticeship in welding before joining a youth ministry as a volunteer youth minister. Three years later, he wanted a career change and at the same time, Amazon opened its first Doncaster fulfilment centre.
He joined the company as a temporary employee and over the course of the last 14 years, has worked his way through different teams and departments to the role he holds today – a workplace health and safety technician apprentice.
Free AI skills training
Amazon recently announced plans to invest £40 billion in the UK over the next three years (2025-2027). This investment includes building four new fulfilment centres and new delivery stations nationwide, as well as upgrades and expansions to its existing network of over 100 operations buildings across the country. The investment will create thousands of new permanent, full-time jobs in the UK. These include 2,000 jobs at the previously announced state-of-the-art fulfilment centre in Hull.
Amazon’s continued expansion will create career opportunities right across the UK, as the company is focused on upskilling its employees and preparing them for the next generation of jobs.
Amazon is also committed to supporting people from underserved and underrepresented backgrounds find meaningful employment opportunities, through employability programmes at Amazon for military veterans, care leavers, prison leavers, and young people with learning disabilities and autism via the Amazon Supported Internship programme.
Beyond its own workforce, as part of a commitment to making AI education accessible to anyone with a desire to learn, Amazon launched "AI Ready" in 2023, providing two million people of all ages with free AI skills training by 2025.
The company achieved this goal a year early. In April 2025, Amazon announced it would bring the Skills to Jobs Tech Alliance to the UK, with the goal to provide 100,000 people with AI skills by 2030, by working in collaboration with educational institutions (including the University of Exeter and the University of Manchester), government leaders, and enterprises across the country.
The programme will prepare students for entry-level technical jobs by adding AWS skills training and industry-approved content to existing classroom curricula. Students will gain hands-on experience and connect directly with potential employers, building both the technical skills and practical experience needed for career success.
To find out more about a career with Amazon, visit Amazon Jobs.
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