Make work experience mandatory for young people, argues Amazon UK boss

Boumphrey said despite the fact that approximately 1 million youngsters are not in education, employment or training, Amazon still finds it difficult to find people with the skills it is looking for.

He told the BBC that “we have to stop blaming young people” and the education system is not “producing young people who are ready for work”.

Boumphrey said mandatory work experience for over-16s would help. He said: “It’s not a motivation problem, it’s a system problem, and that requires a system response.”

He added: “I think too often you read about young people that somehow they lack motivation, they lack resilience, they lack the will to develop skills. That is not our experience.

“We work with some individuals who are probably furthest from work and that’s where we actually see the biggest transformation.”

In the UK, Amazon employs around 75,000 people. Half of them have come straight out of education or from unemployment, Boumphrey said.

He maintained obligatory work experience is “transformative” in enabling young people to learn “things that I don’t think we teach in our curriculum, but that all employers are looking for”. 

“If you get a T-level student, they come in for a week, they understand the value of teamwork, of communication and problem solving.

“I think you need businesses to come together with local governments and further education colleges, and you need that to happen on a regional basis so that you can understand what the skills gaps are,” he said.

Retail is the country’s biggest private sector employer but, as well as facing a skills gap, businesses have been saddled with higher employment costs that pose particular challenges when employing younger people early in their careers.