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Company plans to expand trade education from K-12 to higher education at no cost to students
SHREVEPORT, La. (KSLA) - Amazon is working to bring workforce development programs to K-through-12 schools across the Shreveport-Bossier area, with plans to expand similar efforts to higher education.
‘We Build It Better’ program
The initiative includes a program called “We Build It Better,” which teaches students how to use a variety of tools and introduces them to career paths in fields such as data center operations and fiber infrastructure.
“There’s a lot of kids that don’t know those jobs exist. They don’t know what a fusion splicer is. They don’t know what a data center technician is. So we teach them those skills, expose them to that STEM education, and then we help them understand what that job opportunity looks like in the future,” a representative said.
Amazon said its higher education program would come at no cost to participants — and would include pay for those who enroll.
“So it’s not only no cost — we actually pay them, because we know they’re foregoing other opportunities when they participate in that program. So we pay them to participate. And what happens is they get exposed to every job that happens in a data center — those skilled technical workforce opportunities,” the representative said.