Amazon Will Pay Full College Tuition for Employees Over 750,000 operations employees in the United States are eligible.
By Emily Rella
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Amazon announced Thursday that it will pay the full college tuition for its front-line employees as part of its $1.2 billion investment in education and skills training.
Over 750,000 operations employees in the United States are eligible. The payment covers tuition, classes, books and fees.
The $1.2 billion investment will run through 2025 and also covers English as a Second Language proficiency certifications, high school diplomas and GEDs. The perk applies to all front-line employees, including those who have worked at the company for as little as three months, according to a Thursday announcement.
The company is also adding three new education programs to give employees opportunities to learn skills in data center maintenance and technology, information technology and user experience and research design.
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"Amazon is now the largest job creator in the U.S., and we know that investing in free skills training for our teams can have a huge impact for hundreds of thousands of families across the country. We launched Career Choice almost ten years ago to help remove the biggest barriers to continuing education—time and money—and we are now expanding it even further to pay full tuition and add several new fields of study," said a statement from Dave Clark, CEO of Worldwide Consumer at Amazon.
He went on, "This new investment builds on years of experience supporting employees in growing their careers, including some unique initiatives like building more than 110 on-site classrooms for our employees in Amazon fulfillment centers across 37 states. Today, over 50,000 Amazon employees around the world have already participated in Career Choice and we've seen first-hand how it can transform their lives."
The company will pay the tuition and fees in advance rather than offering reimbursement to employees. The employees will have access to annual funds for education for the entire time they remain at the company. There is no limit to how many years they can use the program.
Amazon is the latest company to take this step. Target announced a similar initiative last month.
