How Amazon is upskilling 50 million people for the future of work

Key takeaways

Amazon is investing in education programs to prepare 50 million people for the future of work
Future Ready 2030 empowers both Amazon employees and the broader workforce to thrive in a rapidly changing labor market
Amazon has already upskilled over 700,000 employees globally through prepaid education and training programs

When we launched an upskilling commitment in 2019, we set what felt like an ambitious goal: help 100,000 employees gain new skills by 2025. Today, I’m proud to share that we've helped more than 700,000 employees globally—including 425,000 in the U.S. and 275,000 outside the U.S.—exceeding our target by more than seven times over.

This success reinforces something we’ve always believed and embraced: People want to continue learning. And that opportunity continues to grow, which means we need to think even bigger about preparing people for what’s coming next.

That’s why today, we’re announcing Future Ready 2030—a $2.5 billion commitment to expand access to education and skills training and help prepare at least 50 million people for the future of work. This will benefit Amazon employees, students, and many others, because we believe that in a rapidly changing economy, people deserve the tools to adapt, build a career, and thrive.

Building skills across every stage of work

Our expanded commitment includes Amazon employees and also reaches beyond our walls because we know that Amazon is part of the fabric of communities across America. New opportunities are emerging that demand creativity, adaptability, and lifelong learning—people want to build new skills to help them seize those opportunities, and we want to help empower them on that journey.

Future Ready 2030 helps address this by connecting education directly to real employment outcomes across every stage of the career journey. We’re inspiring K-12 students through programs like Amazon Future Engineer. We’re opening doors for early-career talent through AWS Educate programs that prepare students for cloud-based jobs, and apprenticeships like our Mechatronics and Robotics program, where graduates can earn up to 58% more per year than typical starting wages for entry-level roles. And, we’re continuing to upskill current employees through initiatives like AWS Skill Builder that help employees develop their cloud computing skills, and Machine Learning University, taught by more than 400 Amazon scientists passionate about sharing their expertise.

We’re also expanding our Career Choice program to all salaried employees in the U.S. (Level 4 and above). For over a decade, Career Choice has been a cornerstone program for our hourly workforce, and lets employees get degrees and certificates in in-demand fields. It’s helped more than 250,000 employees worldwide—including 100,000 just this past year—jump into new careers, and will now be open to many more.

Our commitment to the workforce of the future

Whether someone dreams of working at Amazon, works here now, or has moved on to their next chapter, our goal is the same: helping them have access to the education and training needed to thrive in whatever comes next.

The future of work is being written right now and, with Future Ready 2030, we're committed to ensuring that story includes opportunities for everyone willing to learn and grow.

For information about our broader workforce development programs, go to our list of Amazon's skills training programs.