{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","contentId":"0000016c-0009-d5f4-ad6c-6cdf13290002","url":"https://www.aboutamazon.co.uk/news/community/how-amazon-alexa-is-helping-children-learn-to-code","headline":"How Amazon Alexa is helping children learn to code","description":"As part of our commitment to promoting the diverse range of exciting careers available for young people in STEM, Amazon’s UK head office opened its doors to the next generation of innovators and inventors.","datePublished":"2019-07-17T15:22:24.335Z","dateModified":"2019-07-17T15:22:24.335Z","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Amazon staff"}],"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://assets.aboutamazon.com/dims4/default/6d4ab65/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2400x1600+0+0/resize/300x200!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.aboutamazon.com%2F34%2Fd6%2F29013b6f4198988e652089444e38%2Funp-amazon-lhr16-digital-careers-day007.JPG","width":"300","height":"200"},"articleBody":"![Children at Amazon’s Digital Careers Day for young people in STEM](https://assets.aboutamazon.com/dims4/default/6d4ab65/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2400x1600+0+0/resize/300x200!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.aboutamazon.com%2F34%2Fd6%2F29013b6f4198988e652089444e38%2Funp-amazon-lhr16-digital-careers-day007.JPG)\n\n# How Amazon Alexa is helping children learn to code\n\n*As part of our commitment to promoting the diverse range of exciting careers available for young people in STEM, Amazon’s UK head office opened its doors to the next generation of innovators and inventors.*\n\nPrimary school pupils jumped at the chance to write code for our digital assistant Alexa – thanks to Amazon’s Digital Careers Day.\n\nHosted at Amazon’s UK head office in Shoreditch, East London, pupils from [Kilburn Primary School](http://www.kilburnprimaryschool.co.uk/), [Westbridge Primary School](https://www.westbridgeprimaryschool.com/) and [Balgowan Primary School](http://www.balgowan.bromley.sch.uk/) wrote code for new [Alexa Skills](https://developer.amazon.com/en-gb/alexa-skills-kit) – while also developing their own STEM skills.\n\n![School children at Amazon UK](https://assets.aboutamazon.com/dims4/default/0339a40/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2400x1600+0+0/resize/767x511!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.aboutamazon.com%2F78%2F63%2F7e12e612403e8bd84672e5d83811%2Funp-amazon-lhr16-digital-careers-day009.JPG)\n\n### \n\n### A unique insight into STEM careers\n\nThe Digital Careers Day provided STEM-focused workshops, including tech talks with our developers and engineers.\n\nBen Elliss, Director of Software Development for Amazon, has more than twenty years of experience in the industry and he was delighted to share insights about his career with the pupils.\n\nSpeaking after the workshop, Ben said: “Promoting STEM as a career choice for children is incredibly important to us at Amazon. I hope that by opening the doors to our UK head office, we have opened new eyes to the exciting possibilities of a career in innovation.”\n\n### Coding for Alexa\n\nAfter learning how to build Alexa Skills, the children successfully wrote code for the digital assistant – and we were blown away by their creative, unusual and exciting ideas.\n\n![School children learning to code at Amazon UK](https://assets.aboutamazon.com/dims4/default/754fde1/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2400x1600+0+0/resize/767x511!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.aboutamazon.com%2F51%2F9f%2F83aa401148b5b6a4acd085510962%2Funp-amazon-lhr16-digital-careers-day051.JPG)\n\n### Long-term commitment to STEM education\n\nAt Amazon we are proud to promote the diverse range of careers available to young people who choose to pursue further study in STEM subjects. This is part of our long-term commitment to STEM education in the UK.\n\nWe previously hosted [Camp Amazon](https://blog.aboutamazon.co.uk/in-the-community/inspiring-thousands-of-future-innovators-with-our-camp-amazon-stem-workshops-during-british-science-week) during British Science Week, which saw 1,200 school children take part in [CREST](https://www.crestawards.org/)-approved STEM workshops in partnership with the [British Science Association](https://www.britishscienceassociation.org/).\n\nWe have also launched a[£1m SME Apprenticeship Fund and new Amazon Academy programme](https://blog.aboutamazon.co.uk/supporting-small-businesses/building-digital-skills-for-small-businesses-with-our-new-1m-sme-apprenticeship-fund) as part of a package of new measures to help small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) upskill their workforce in vital retail and digital skills. The SME Apprenticeship Fund will also enable the creation of over 150 [Digital Marketing](https://www.instituteforapprenticeships.org/apprenticeship-standards/digital-marketer-integrated-degree/), [Business Administrator](https://www.instituteforapprenticeships.org/apprenticeship-standards/business-administrator/) and [Customer Services](https://www.instituteforapprenticeships.org/apprenticeship-standards/customer-service-practitioner/) roles, who will work full-time for SMEs that sell on Amazon.\n\nWe would like to say a huge thank you to all the staff and young people who joined us at our head office for the Digital Careers Day. We’re excited to discover where this new generation of builders, inventors and innovators will take us next!","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"About Amazon","url":"https://www.aboutamazon.com","sameAs":["https://x.com/amazonnews","https://www.linkedin.com/company/amazon","https://www.instagram.com/amazonnews"],"logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://assets.aboutamazon.com/bd/8f/88e7b0314cc2bd05b9de3155a0fe/amazon-news.svg"},"parentOrganization":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Amazon","url":"https://www.amazon.com","sameAs":["https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3884","https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_(company)","https://x.com/Amazon"]}}}