Helping to shape the digital future

Our colleague Theresa attended the National Science on Stage Festival 2023 in Bayreuth for Amazon Future Engineer

Digital skills are more important than ever before. They prepare people for the job market and enable them to participate in and actively shape an increasingly digitalized world. In order to anchor these skills in society in the long term, they must be taught at school. Computer science lessons play a key role in this. While almost all European countries have computer science as a compulsory subject, it is only an optional subject in Germany. International comparative studies confirm that Germany has a clear need for development, as German pupils are only in the midfield when it comes to digital skills.

With the Amazon Future Engineer initiative, Amazon wants to counteract precisely this trend and make it easier for children and young people to access computer science education with the aim of offering them better personal opportunities for the future. Students can easily discover the world of computer science, learn coding languages, program robots and exchange ideas with experts to learn about IT professions. In the so-called class chats, experienced specialists share their individual career stories, giving students a realistic idea of IT professions and their development opportunities. In virtual tours through Amazon fulfillment centers, students stop at different stations and learn how Amazon's logistics processes work. They meet the developers who make this delivery system possible and learn about IT (professions) in logistics.

We are pleased to have been actively involved in the project since the initiative was launched in Germany in 2021, making an important contribution to improving the digital skills of the next generation and thus also general educational opportunities.