An apprentice from Portadown who works at Amazon’s delivery station in the town is encouraging others to become an apprentice and pursue their dream career during Northern Ireland Apprenticeship Week 2026 (2- 6 February).
The Amazon Apprenticeship programme, recognised as one of the UK’s top apprenticeship schemes by the Government’s Department for Education1, is creating more than 300 new operations and corporate apprenticeships in the UK in 2026.
Oliwia Osinska from Portadown is taking part in the programme and is hoping to encourage others to consider an apprenticeship.
Northern Ireland Apprenticeship Week
Oliwia works in the sortation team at the Amazon delivery station in Portadown and is completing a Level 2 Supply Chain Warehouse Operative apprenticeship through the Amazon Apprenticeship programme. The apprenticeship sees Oliwia train virtually with apprentices from Amazon sites across England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
After completing her GCSEs and obtaining three A-levels, Oliwia was offered a place to study geography at university, but chose not to accept. She decided on a different career path and while she was planning her future career moves, took on a temporary role at Amazon.
Oliwia is now a permanent member of the Amazon team and she’s embracing every development opportunity offered by the company, including serving on the safety committee, and now on the apprenticeship forum.
She said: “I am very ambitious. If there’s an opportunity for something, I want to try it. When they announced applications for apprenticeships were open, I was like, yeah, I want to try, I’ll throw my hat in the ring.”
“My favourite thing about the programme is my other classmates,” Oliwia continued. “The fact that people are based in different sites across the UK means there are a lot of cultural differences that we discuss.”
The timing of Oliwia’s apprenticeship, which began in the summer 2025, coincided with a difficult personal challenge. Shortly after starting, her father was diagnosed with cancer. As he doesn’t speak much English, Oliwia has taken on the role of accompanying him to hospital appointments and translating.
“The apprenticeship takes place within your working hours, you don’t have to sacrifice your time outside of work. I can still work on everything I need to work on, and then I have time to go out and go to hospital appointments with my dad. I’m not going home stressing about assignments because I know I have time to do them at work. All my managers help me get the resources I need and the training I need to complete it.”
Oliwia’s role at Amazon involves coordinating the delivery of parcels to the Portadown delivery station and ensuring they make the last mile of their journey to customers. The apprenticeship has deepened her understanding of Amazon and logistics in general through modules on customer satisfaction, managing customer expectations, problem-solving, work organisation and visual management.
For others considering an apprenticeship, Oliwia’s advice is clear. “I’d tell them to go for it. It’s conducted within your working time, so if you want to progress your career but don’t want to sacrifice all of your time, with Amazon it’s possible.”
Young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) can also take advantage of the Amazon Supported Internship programme. Launched in 2021, the initiative combines classroom learning with practical work experience; helping interns develop essential skills in English, Maths, and CV writing, while gaining hands-on experience across three operational job functions.
Pay at Amazon starts from £13.95 or £14.96 per hour depending on location, equating to between £29,037 and £31,116 annually. Additionally, from day one, all employees are offered a comprehensive benefits package including private medical insurance, life assurance, income protection, and an employee discount. Together, these benefits are worth more than £700 annually, and employees can take advantage of a company pension plan.
