Amazon has turned to a Rochester company to help it prepare employees for higher-skill jobs.

After a nationwide search, Amazon chose Second Avenue Learning to develop a curriculum for Amazon employees who want to transition to higher paying jobs in software development.
“The program was designed to take people who did not have a college or technical background and put them on a career track that would enable them to have career advancement,” says Victoria Van Voorhis, Founder and CEO of Second Avenue Learning. “So people from their call centers or their warehouses, and actually upskill them substantially to put them on a career track.”

The curriculum designed for Amazon employees includes games, simulations, software upgrades and special tools for those who need help with math and computing skills. Second Avenue Learning began developing the program in 2019. Amazon is now using it to train thousands of employees for jobs as Amazon software engineers.

Second Avenue Learning makes educational content and develops software for schools and corporations alike. It was founded in 2006 and employs 30 people, including 20 in Rochester.