Amazon helps schoolgirls from low-income families become ‘future engineers’ and offers assistance worth Rs 1.5 Lakh

E-commerce giant Amazon is inviting school children to learn computer science as part of its Amazon Future Engineer (AFE) program. Admission to register for the program is open. Interested students can apply until December 31. Up to 500 students will be pre-selected to benefit.

AFE has also set up around 70 labs where children learn to code and build live projects using physical computing components such as Raspberry PIs and sensors. These labs combined with digital assets allow schools to experiment with computers and technology. For AFE scholars, Amazon is offering each student a sum of Rs 1.6 lakh over four years, as well as mentorship from Amazonians and boot camp style courses to build a successful tech career.

Female students who have already been admitted to an engineering school through a central or national level entrance examination and who have a total annual household income of Rs 3 Lakh or less, are eligible to apply for the stock Exchange.

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This is the second year of the program. In the first year of launch, supported 200 girls from low-income families with scholarships to pursue computer studies. This year, the number of beneficiaries has been increased to 500 students.

“Amazon Future Engineer was launched in India with the aim of democratizing computer science education so that every child has the potential to become creators and not just consumers of technology. Since the launch of AFE, we have been working with our partner organizations to support the systemic integration of computer science education in public schools across multiple states,” said Anita Kumar, Manager – Amazon in the Community, CSR India & APAC.

Learning is also available in local languages, a curated curriculum for schools, courses for computer teachers, an additional back-up person to teach computer science and fill in infrastructure gaps where possible, says Amazon.

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In addition to India, the AFE program supports the education of computer science to more than one million children and young adults from underrepresented communities in the United States, United Kingdom, France and Canada .

AFE also enables educators to teach computer science in a more engaging way and develop 21st century skills in their students. To facilitate this, AFE, in collaboration with various government and non-profit organizations, offers training and coding courses for teachers who want to bring computing into their classrooms.

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