At the event, organised by the national charity Career Ready, students from the local college were tasked with a range of challenges centred around the core theme of STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths).
The challenges, which saw the students work in teams, included coding and designing new Alexa Skills.
Amazon’s Cambridge Development Centre houses R&D teams that bring new innovation to millions of Amazon customers around the globe, including: Amazon Devices, Amazon Alexa (the brain that powers devices such as Amazon Echo, Echo Dot and Echo Show); AWS; Prime Air (a future delivery system to safely get packages to customers in 30 minutes or less using drones) and core machine learning and retail systems, improving the shopping experience for Amazon customers.
Amazon’s support of the Skillathon is one of a number of ways in which it supports the development of young people in Cambridge by encouraging them to embrace STEM subjects.
Speaking on the event, David Hardcastle, Director, Amazon Development Centre Cambridge, said: “We’ve been partnering with Career Ready for nearly three years. Career Ready brings schools, companies and local agencies together with a focus on preparing young people to embark on their careers and does important work in inspiring and nurturing the next generation of STEM superstars. We enjoyed welcoming the students from Long Road Sixth Form College to Amazon Development Centre Cambridge, and I wish them all well as they continue in the final years of their studies.”
Andy Goodwin, Careers Leader, Long Road Sixth Form College added: “The Skillathon event at Amazon has been a fantastic learning experience for our students. It’s not often that we get to take part in events like this with such innovative companies and I’d like to thank Amazon and Career Ready for inspiring our students with this brilliant event.”