Amazon has launched an initiative to offer its UK employees up to £8,000 towards furthering their education.
The Amazon Career Choice programme, which will fund up to £2,000 per year over four years, pre-pays 95% of tuition and associated fees for nationally recognised courses.
The initiative is intended to make it easier for employees to make choices around expanding their career at Amazon or in another field.
The programme will fund vocational qualifications in fields such as accounting, engineering, information technology, computer science, health and social care, construction, transportation and logistics.
Amazon launched the programme in the US in 2012.
Roy Perticucci, vice president for EU operations at Amazon, said: “For some of our fulfilment centre employees, Amazon will be a career, for others it might be a stepping stone to a different job that may require additional training.
“If learning new skills can make the difference, we want to help.
“It can be difficult to have the flexibility and financial resources to learn new skills or fund new qualifications. Our goal with the Career Choice programme is to enable choice.”
Matthew Hancock, minister of state for skills and enterprise, added: “Learning and education lies at the heart of all career development, and giving employees the opportunity and strengthen their potential and learn new skills in this way will no doubt give many Amazon employees new vigour and direction.”