The ‘Amazon Future Engineer’ programme is a new comprehensive childhood-to-career programme run by online retail giant Amazon, that seeks to inspire, educate and enable pupils to take up tech careers.

It is part of the Amazon in the Community programme, which aims to ensure more children and young adults have the resources and skills they need to build better careers.

The long-term goal of the programme is to address the widening skills gap, which could cost the UK economy up to £33 billion by 2030 if not tackled now. New research by Capital Economics estimates that the UK requires 21,000 and 1,000 computer science graduates, to meet labour demands every year.

Amazon aims to help meet that need through its Amazon Future Engineer programme by supporting the recruitment and training of 50 secondary school computer science teachers and over 200 ‘Career Leaders’. The programme will also launch robotics workshops for 10,000 children and create other opportunities for them to experience computer science.

The company hopes to reach over one million children and young people across the UK over the next two years. Primary school pupils in Scotland will have the opportunity to participate in free robotics workshops at Amazon fulfilment centre in Dunfermline, where they will learn to program robots which use similar technology by Amazon to fulfil customer orders.

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Created in collaboration with Fire Tech and accredited by the British Science Association, the workshops will provide the children with first-hand experience of how technology operates in the real works. Amazon will also embark on a road trip across the UK, bringing the robotics workshops to primary schools around the country.

“Research shows the UK needs 21,000 more computer science graduates on average, every year, to meet the demands of the digital economy,” said Doug Gurr, UK Country Manager, Amazon. “By making computer science skills more widely accessible from childhood to career in Scotland, we hope Amazon Future Engineer will inspire and empower young people, regardless of their background, to take up careers in computer science.”

Rt Hon Gavin Williamson CBE MP, Secretary of State for Education, said: “Today’s school pupils will go on to do jobs that don’t even exist yet because the world of technology and computing is progressing so quickly. This is why we’re making sure our schools and teachers equip young people with the skills and knowledge they’ll need to be successful in the future by expanding our IoT programme and investing an extra £14bn in schools over the next three years.

“The work of Amazon Future Engineer will support us in just that by harnessing Amazon’s reach and know-how to make sure that pupils from all backgrounds can access a cutting edge education and I look forward to seeing it in action.”

Amazon has undertaken a number of other projects to help encourage young people to take up computer science. It has helped create an interactive dance-themed online coding tutorial together non-profit organisation Code.org, featuring songs from leading artists. The company is also working with education charity Teach First to support the recruitment and training of 50 secondary school computer science teachers.

The computer science teachers will be placed in schools serving low-income communities from next year and will have the opportunity to embark on paid work experience at Amazon. Careers Leaders and computer science students will also have the chance to visit Amazon on work insight days.

In addition, Amazon is funding 120 apprenticeships in software development engineering, automation and advanced mechatronics, enabling a diverse range of applicants to enter the computer science field.