An apprentice from Peterborough is calling on local people and her fellow colleagues to pursue the career they have always wanted by applying for an apprenticeship.
Sunha Zulfiqar is a network engineering apprentice at Amazon in Peterborough. She started her apprenticeship with Amazon in August 2018 and is working towards a qualification to become an infrastructure technician.
What Sunha loves most is the opportunity to learn something new every day. "It’s very rewarding, and I feel I have progressed so much in a short space of time. I find my confidence is growing every day and I’m really enjoying it. Amazon is such a diverse company and the fact that there is such a high racial and gender diversity here is so welcoming,” she said.
I was always certain an apprenticeship was the right choice for me
Speaking on why she applied for the Amazon Apprenticeship Programme, Sunha said: “When I finished my GCSEs, I took part in a Microsoft course and it really piqued my interest in computing and IT. It was then that I knew this was the career path that I wanted to follow.”
“I was always certain an apprenticeship was the right choice for me, and when I learned about the Amazon Apprenticeship Programme, I knew I had to apply because it ticked all of the boxes for what I wanted to do.”
Sunha is one of over 300 apprentices currently working at Amazon in the UK. Amazon has announced it will create a further 1,000 new apprenticeships for new and existing employees in fulfilment centres and development centres across the country. The new apprentices will add to over 27,500 permanent employees currently in the UK, with pay ranging from an entry level starting salary of £9.50/£10.50 an hour, up to £30,000 a year.
Nine different programmes are on offer across the country to people of all levels, ranging from IT, safety and HR through to software engineering, robotics, leadership and technology.
Two-in-every-ten new apprenticeships will be offered exclusively to Amazon’s existing workforce, providing a route from working on the shop floor through to working on cutting-edge software development, robotics technology and senior leadership roles in the business.
In addition to being fully-funded, apprentices also receive industry-leading benefits including competitive pay, employee discounts, private medical insurance and company pension plan.
When asked what advice she would give to anyone thinking of applying for an apprenticeship, Sunha said: “I would recommend the Amazon Apprenticeship Programme to everyone. It’s such a supportive environment here. If you have any problems, big or small, everyone is always keen to help and that goes for everyone, not just those in my team, I find everyone super-supportive. I feel Amazon is a great company with a great reputation, why would you not want to be part of that.”
To find out more about the Amazon Apprenticeship Programme visit www.amazon.jobs/apprentices
