AMAZON has announced a scheme to boost gender diversity across its UK business.
Last year, Amazon partnered with Wise (the campaign for gender balance in science, technology and engineering) to conduct research and help build a roadmap for companies across the UK to improve gender diversity, with the findings helping inform its new Amazon Amplify programme.
Wise’s research, which polled more than 1000 women working in STEM, reveals a 10% increase of women in STEM careers would lead to £3 billion boost for UK business, with women in innovation earning up to £11,000 a year more than in other careers.
Amazon Amplify aims to further ramp up the recruitment of female employees, encourage more women to consider careers in technology and innovation and help prevent some of the biggest barriers to career progression cited by women in STEM roles across different sectors.
“Diversity fosters greater innovation and helps raise the bar for customers, and having a diverse workforce is also just the right thing to do,” said Fiona McDonnell of Amazon.
The scheme includes an Amazon Women in Innovation Bursary which offers funding of between £3500 and £7500 per year to a female student from a low-income household attending one of the three universities which neighbour its three UK Development Centres: Edinburgh University, Kings College London and Churchill College in Cambridge University.
Recipients include Liana Ahmed and Robyn Green (pictured above) from Edinburgh University.
Green, 20, said: “I actually wanted to be a musician when I was a little girl. I played piano, violin and clarinet. That said, I always loved building things and had a lot of fun with Lego as a child, so it was clear that I was drawn to areas related to logic from a very young age.”
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