Amazon pays college tuition for front-line employees
Full article: https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/workplace/amazon-to-pay-college-tuition-for-front-line-employees
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Written by Amazon Staff
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More than 750,000 operations employees in the U.S. are eligible for fully funded college tuition, including cost of classes, books, and fees.
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Amazon expanded the education and skills training benefits it offers to its U.S. employees with a total investment of $1.2 billion by 2025. Through its popular Career Choice program, the company now funds full college tuition, as well as high school diplomas, GEDs, and English as a Second Language (ESL) proficiency certifications for its front-line employees—including those who have been at the company for as little as three months. Amazon also offers three education programs to provide employees with the opportunity to learn skills within data center maintenance and technology, IT, and user experience and research design.
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Amazon front-line employees now have access to even more education benefits through Career Choice:
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Funding for college tuition. More than 750,000 operations employees across the U.S. are eligible to have their full college tuition paid for at hundreds of education partners across the country. In addition to funding associate and bachelor’s degrees, Amazon’s Career Choice will also fund high school completion, GEDs, and ESL proficiency certifications.
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Pre-paid fees. Amazon pays employees’ tuition and fees in advance rather than offering reimbursement after coursework completion, ensuring employees don’t need existing funds to start accessing the education options they want.
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Limitless learning. Amazon front-line employees have access to annual funds for education as long as they remain at the company, with no limit to the number of years they can benefit.
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Fast starts. All 750,000 U.S. hourly employees are eligible to participate in Career Choice 90 days after starting at Amazon. This makes all 400,000 employees who joined the company since the start of the pandemic eligible to access Amazon-funded education opportunities.
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"I worked in a warehouse setting for years but knew I wanted to help people and had been curious about healthcare. In just nine months, I became a certified clinical medical assistant while working at Amazon in Tracy, California, thanks to Career Choice," said former Amazon operations employee and Career Choice graduate Patricia Soto. "A career in healthcare would have been difficult to obtain without tuition support from Amazon and an internship opportunity to apply my new skills."
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Amazon Technical Academy
Amazon Technical Academy trains employees from across the company to become Amazon software engineers. The nine-month-long internal training program does not require a computer science background or a degree. Amazon Technical Academy has placed over 95% of its graduates into software development engineer roles within Amazon, with their salary and compensation packages increasing an average of 93% as a result. This year more than 52% of Amazon Technical Academy graduates came from Amazon’s operations network.
