Amazon Future Engineer (AFE), a flagship global computer science education program by Amazon, has completed one year in India. Amazon has supported more than 4.5 Lakh students from over 3000 government schools across 11 states to explore and learn computer science through interactive digital and in person learning interventions. These students in grades 3 to 12, are primarily from low-income families and lack the resources to study computer science or the opportunities to learn about careers that exist in the technology industry. In its first year, the program also supported 200 girls from low income families with scholarships to pursue computer science education.
With support from Amazon, students embark on their computer science learning journey with interactive and practical content which is delivered to students and their educators by AFE partner non-profits. AFE has also set up around 70 AFE labs where children learn to code and also to build live projects using physical computing components like raspberry PIs and sensors. These labs combined with digital assets enable schools to provide a holistic learning experience to their students by experimenting with computers and technology. For AFE Scholars, Amazon provides each student a sum of INR 1.6 lakh over four years along with mentorship from Amazonians and bootcamp style courses to build a successful tech career.
“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 striving, along with our partner organizations, to support systemic integration of computer science education in government schools in multiple states,” said Anita Kumar, Head – Amazon in the Community, CSR India & APAC. “We provide computer science learning avenues which include interactive learning content based on real world application of Computer Science (CS) in local languages, curated curriculum for schools, courses for teachers in CS, additional recourse person to teach CS and bridge infrastructure gaps where possible. Through these initiatives, we believe that we will be able to inspire young people to build their best future through quality computer science education, while building a diverse and inclusive tech industry,” added, Anita.
