With the Amazon Future Engineer (AFE) digital education initiative, we have set ourselves the goal of introducing young people to the world of IT and technology in a fun way - and are now increasingly doing so in Austria.
It was a special experience for 50 Viennese students to visit the Amazon distribution centre in Liesing this year, where they immersed themselves in the world of programming through courses and a youth hackathon. As part of their Digital Basic Education subject, two classes from the neighbouring Steinergasse Middle School and a class from AHS Theodor Kramer had already completed a virtual programming course, which was facilitated by Amazon Future Engineer and local partner DaVinciLab. Now it was time to experience how these skills could be implemented into everyday working life.
Amazon in Austria: Rocco Bräuniger and Miriam Enzi provide insights
The students, aged between 12 and 14, were delighted when they were personally welcomed to our distribution centre by Miriam Enzi, Amazon Logistics Regional Manager, and Rocco Bräuniger, Country Manager of Amazon in Austria, Germany and Switzerland. "I have three daughters and I always tell them: if you‘re enthusiastic about technology, you can shape the world of tomorrow," said Rocco. The students then explored the site and learned more about the process of an Amazon order and the logistics and technology behind it. The students were able to try out some of the process steps themselves, such as scanning incoming parcels or software-supported sorting – and had a lot of fun doing so. Michaela Winter-Ziering, a teacher at AHS Theodor Kramer said it was a great experience for the students to gain insight into Amazon‘s processes and to see how much logistical IT power is behind them: "It was particularly exciting for the students to take on 'real tasks' such as scanning and labelling. Just putting on and wearing the protective clothing gave the students a taste of the working world."
Talents of the future awarded at the Amazon Future Engineer YouthHackathon
All students who completed the programming course were able to submit their resulting projects and games for the Amazon Future Engineer YouthHackathon, the winners of which were honoured at the 4Gamechangers Festival, a digital event organised by the ProSiebenSat.1 PULS 4 private broadcasting group, in Vienna in May.
The theme, design and type of game, as well as the underlying code, could be freely chosen by the secondary school students. From over 100 submitted projects, the best games in each of four categories were chosen: Best Code, Best Game Design, Best Story and Best Artistic Design. The four winners from a total of three schools - Mittelschule Steinergasse (1230, Vienna), AHS Theodor Kramer (1220, Vienna) and Polytechnische Schule Mureck (Styria) - celebrated their big moment on stage with their classmates and teachers.
"My friends think it's cool that I programmed my own game, that makes me proud!" said Valerie, 13 years old, student at AHS Theodor Kramer, and winner of the Amazon Future Engineer YouthHackathon in the "Best Artistic Design" category.
The six-member jury - including Michael Vollmann, who heads the Amazon Future Engineer education initiative in Europe at Amazon; Melina Schneider, Head of the Education Policy Department of the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber; Nina Kaiser, Co-Founder of the 4Gamechangers Festival; and Prof. Dr. Renate Motschnig and Lukas Ackermann from the Faculty of Computer Science at the University of Vienna - did not find it an easy decision. "Many great projects were submitted, each one creative and unique. It is a great pleasure to see how students can discover their potential and use it in a project like this," said Anna Gawin, founder and managing director of the social business DaVinciLab and co-initiator of the Amazon Future Engineer YouthHackathon.
What is Amazon Future Engineer?
The aim of Amazon Future Engineer is to offer as many young people as possible exciting insights into the world of technology and programming. Therefore, all offers are free of charge and for the most part can be accessed virtually. In addition, learning materials are provided for teachers to prepare and follow up on, allowing teachers to flexibly incorporate the content into their lessons, without any prior knowledge of their own.
"With Amazon Future Engineer, we want to start where support is most needed: with children and young people from socially disadvantaged families or underrepresented groups," said Rocco Bräuniger. Last but not least, positive experiences in the context of career orientation can influence career choices and, as a result, one's chances on the job market. Equal opportunities are also a matter close to the heart of AFE partner DaVinciLab from Vienna. The independent educational start-up was founded around six years ago by parents Anna and Peter Gawin with the aim of promoting children's digital skills and helping them to develop their potential, creativity, and critical thinking.
"With the 'DavinciLab Talentslounge', we are pursuing the goal of enabling teachers throughout Austria to introduce computer science thinking into the classroom in a fun way and without additional effort,” said Anna Gawin. “We are convinced that this support will effectively close the gap in STEM skills."
Amazon promotes Meet and Code
Amazon Future Engineer is also the main sponsor of the Europe-wide Meet and Code initiative, which supports programming workshops run by local non-profit organisations for children and young people across Europe. In Austria, Meet and Code facilitated 41 workshops in 2023, reaching over 900 young people – 93% of whom came from socially disadvantaged families. In total, Meet and Code facilitated over 1,300 coding workshops in 25 EU countries for over 57,000 young people last year, with our support.
