Learning at Work Week: Amazon worker Callum Barker taps into training to shape his career

Callum Barker, a reliability maintenance engineering (RME) technician, has used the fulfilment centre’s development and training opportunities, where he has worked since 2011, to shape his professional career.

One of the programmes Callum has taken part in is Amazon Career Choice which pre-pays up to 95% of tuition and fees for courses in high-demand fields, up to £8000 over four years, regardless of whether the skills are relevant to a career at Amazon. Courses, including accountancy, HGV driving and software development, are designed to help employees build careers at Amazon or elsewhere.

After being made permanent at the fulfilment centre in 2012, Callum started looking for opportunities to work in different departments. A temporary role on the RME team became permanent, and Callum used Amazon Career Choice to boost his electrical engineering skills.

“The best thing about my job is that every day is different,” Callum said. “There’s always something new to work on, so you can expect to be challenged. I’m pleased that can still say that after 13 years with Amazon.”

Callum is hopeful that the next step in his career will be a promotion to shift lead, a role he currently takes on as a proxy.

“I’m taking my time, but when a shift lead position becomes available, I’ll apply and hopefully be successful. I enjoy building things and focusing on tasks until they’re finished, so I’m happy where I am on the RME team and look forward to the years of my career to come.”

Jamie Strain, Amazon Dunfermline general manager, added: 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. “

Learning at Work Week is an annual programme run by the charity Campaign for Learning. It works with organisations around the UK to create activities and fun challenges in the workplace to help employees learn and grow.