Milton Keynes IT engineer offers career tips during Learning at Work Week 2024

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

This year’s theme, Learning power, explores how lifelong and continual learning gives people power to change, grow and achieve individual, team and organisational goals.

Rayman Malkinski, who works at the Amazon fulfilment centre in Milton Keynes, has used Amazon’s development and training opportunities to shape his professional career.

One of the programmes Rayman has taken part in at Amazon is Amazon Career Choice. The programme, which has been running at Amazon for the past decade, pre-pays up to 95% of tuition and fees for courses in high-demand fields, up to £8,000 over four years, regardless of whether the skills are relevant to a career at Amazon.

Courses available include accountancy, HGV driving and software development, and are designed to help employees build careers at Amazon or elsewhere. It means that eligible employees are given the opportunity to gain the skills and qualifications needed to follow their career aspirations.

Rayman, who used the programme to help secure their role as an IT engineer, has shared their story to encourage others to take their career to the next level using the Amazon Career Choice programme.

Rayman works at the Amazon fulfilment centre in Milton Keynes as an IT engineer. He has worked at Amazon since 2012 and started his Amazon Career Choice journey in 2014, becoming one of the first people in the UK to take part in the programme.

“I joined Amazon back in 2012 as a seasonal worker and in 2014, I became a permanent member of the team,” he said. Rayman has spent the majority of his Amazon career in Milton Keynes but has also worked at the company’s fulfilment centre in Dunfermline.

Before joining Amazon, Rayman worked in construction in his native Poland. He moved to the UK in 2012, when he joined Amazon. Two years into his Amazon journey, Rayman saw an opportunity to be in the first cohort of Amazon Career Choice participants and signed up for an English language course.

Amazon Career Choice made such an impression on Rayman that he took advantage of several other training opportunities through the programme. After completing a year-long course in English language, Rayman did Amazon’s qualification in PC maintenance and networking. In 2016, Rayman completed his Amazon Career Choice learning by gaining the Cisco Certified Network Associate qualification, which led him to the career he has today in IT. Rayman’s IT qualification was delivered in collaboration with Bedford College and took place over two years.

“Amazon Career Choice has been a great programme for me,” he said. “It’s a great opportunity to advance your skills in many areas. You can learn everything from HGV driving to IT and it helps you to learn more and earn more.”

Rayman goes on to explain how taking part in the programme has benefitted his career. “I’ve always been interested in IT and networking and really wanted to work in this field,” he said. “Doing my Amazon Career Choice qualifications allowed me to apply for an IT technician role here in Milton Keynes and I got the job straight away. I haven’t looked back since.”

Speaking on his favourite thing about working at Amazon, Rayman singles out the progression opportunities. “I joined the company as a seasonal worker, and have progressed through the ranks to the job I have today,” he said. “The development opportunities at Amazon are incredible and they’re open to everyone and this is my favourite thing about the company – the endless opportunities to grow, develop and learn something new.”

Amazon also provides opportunities to improve existing skills or learn new ones through internal career progression opportunities such as apprenticeships, transferring to a different department and promotion to a managerial role.

Amazon Milton Keynes General Manager, Victor Pulido, added: “We are proud of Rayman’s success through the Amazon Career Choice programme. 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. Others have gone on to successful careers elsewhere, and we are proud to have supported them in their professional development by giving them extra tools for success in their new roles. We look forward to offering employees even more choices in the future as Amazon Career Choice evolves and grows.”

Amazon employees receive competitive pay and comprehensive benefits. Pay starts at a minimum of £13.00 per hour in Milton Keynes and employees are offered a comprehensive benefits package, including private medical insurance, life assurance, income protection and an employee discount as well as a company pension plan.

Amazon has been named as a ‘Top Employer UK 2024’ by the Top Employer Institute, one of the world’s most prestigious certifications in the field of human resources management. This award recognises Amazon’s commitment to the development and well-being of its employees. In addition to the UK accolade, Amazon has also been certified as one of the Top Employers in Europe for a second consecutive year.

In 2023, Amazon ranked in second place on LinkedIn’s Top Companies list — an annual list that identifies the most sought-after places to work and grow your career in the UK. Using data from LinkedIn’s 900 million members, LinkedIn’s Top Companies list is designed to help professionals identify the best companies to grow their careers.

To find out more about a career with Amazon, visit Amazon Jobs.