Working At Amazon / Upskilling 2025

Upskilling

As part of Upskilling 2025, Amazon is building on the success of its current programs as well as creating new training opportunities for employees across the U.S.
A woman stands at the front of a classroom as she speaks to around a dozen individuals who are seated across the room.

The training programs offered through Upskilling 2025 support Amazon employees as they gain critical skills to move into higher skill, better paying, technical or non-technical roles.

In looking at job growth over the next decade, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics anticipates some of the fastest growing job areas are increasingly in more skilled areas, including medical assistants, statisticians, software developers, nurse practitioners and wind turbine service technicians. This provides a huge opportunity for anyone who builds more technical skills to move into better paying roles. Through Upskilling 2025, Amazon is focused on creating pathways to careers in areas that will continue growing in years to come, like medicine, cloud computing, and machine learning.

Upskilling programs include:
  • Machine Learning University (MLU)

    As machine learning plays an increasingly important role in customer innovation, MLU helps employees learn core skills to propel their career growth—skills that are often learned only in higher education. Divided into six-week modules, the program requires only half to one full day of participation a week. MLU is taught by more than 400 Amazon Machine Learning scientists who are passionate about furthering skills in the field. Originally launched as a small cohort, the program is on course to train thousands of employees.
  • Amazon Technical Academy

    A training and job placement program that equips non-technical Amazon employees with the essential skills to transition into, and thrive in, software engineering careers. Combining instructor-led, project-based learning with real-world application, graduates of the program master the most widely used software engineering practices and tools required to thrive in a career at Amazon. This tuition-free program was created by Amazon software engineers for Amazon employees who want to move into the field.
  • Associate2Tech

    A program that provides fulfillment center associates the opportunity to move into technical roles, regardless of their previous IT experience, within Amazon’s vast operations network. This fully-paid for 90-day program is designed to place associates in on-the-job training for IT support technician roles and pays for their A+ Certification test, a widely recognized certification. No existing degree is needed, and participants have paid study time during their work week.
  • Career Choice

    Amazon’s pre-paid tuition program for fulfillment center associates looking to move into high-demand occupations. Amazon will pay up to 95% of tuition and fees towards a certificate or diploma in qualified fields of study, leading to enhanced employment opportunities in in-demand jobs. Since launching Career Choice in 2012, over 25,000 Amazonians have received training for high-demand occupations including aircraft mechanics, computer-aided design, machine tool technologies, medical lab technologies, and nursing. The company is investing in expanding the program by building additional classrooms in its fulfillment centers globally, and expects to have over 60 on-site classrooms by the end of 2020.
  • Amazon Apprenticeship

    A Department of Labor certified program that offers paid intensive classroom training and on-the-job apprenticeships with Amazon. Providing a combination of immersive learning and on-the-job training, the Amazon Apprenticeship program has already created paths to technical jobs for hundreds of candidates working to break into professions including cloud support associate, data technician and software development engineer.
  • AWS Training and Certification

    We're expanding this program to close the cloud skills gap in the industry. Amazon employees have access to free classroom and digital training to build cloud knowledge, and discounted AWS Certification exams to validate cloud expertise. Cultivating these in-demand skills opens opportunities both within Amazon and at organizations around the world as demand for cloud talent continues to grow.

"It's not magic. It's math."

As part of the Upskilling 2025 pledge, Amazon makes graduate-school-level training free for its employees through Machine Learning University.
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