Rugby HR business partner offers career tips during Learning at Work Week

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.

Ieuan Spanswick, who works at the Amazon fulfilment centre in Rugby, has used Amazon’s development and training opportunities to shape his professional career.

One of the programmes Ieuan 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.

Ieuan, who used the programme to help secure their role as an HR business partner, has shared their story to encourage others to take their career to the next level using the Amazon Career Choice programme.

Hailing from Hengoed, South Wales, Ieuan is an HR business partner at Amazon in Rugby. He joined the company five years ago and was part of the team that opened the Rugby site.

Before joining Amazon, Ieuan studied Psychology at the University of Cardiff. During this time, he worked part-time in retail, where he moved into a full-time role for a year after graduating to save and move abroad.

Ieuan spent three years living abroad – first in Australia, where he worked in a variety of roles including farming in the outback, as well as in bars and restaurants. He then moved to Brazil for two years, where he taught English. It was after his teaching job that he decided to come home. He said:

“When I got back to the UK after living abroad, I knew that I wanted to get into HR and saw an opportunity with Amazon. I knew there’d be no better place to start my HR career than at one of the biggest companies in the world.”

Ieuan completed the HR CIPD Level 5 certification through Amazon Career Choice. He said:

“Career Choice is an excellent offering by Amazon and it really helped me progress in my career. I started in a very ground level HR role before taking a step-up role to HR partner level. While in this step-up role, I started my Career Choice course. Since joining Amazon, I’ve completed two step-up roles and gotten two promotions. I’ve advanced multiple levels in my career thanks to the Amazon Career Choice programme.”

Ieuan added: “I would like to continue taking on new responsibility and further career progression beyond my current role and would love to go on and complete my HR CIPD Level 7 certification at some stage through another training programme we have here – the Amazon Apprenticeship programme. This is the most advanced HR CIPD course there is and would be the equivalent to a postgraduate master’s degree.”

“I also love that in my job I can help others to develop their careers,” Ieuancontinued. “I’m involved in the training, upskilling and mentoring of lots of great people at Amazon, which can be really rewarding. I would encourage any one of my colleagues to try Career Choice. If you’re engaged and eager, you should definitely get involved.”

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 Rugby Site Leader, James Pitt, added: “We are proud of Ieuan’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 £12.30 per hour in Rugby 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.