Onsego, an online publisher of GED preparatory materials, has published a list of major American corporations that reimburse or pay upfront for your college tuition.
An increasing number of US corporations have developed initiatives to let their employees earn a GED® diploma, a professional certificate, or even a bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degree. Onsego believes that workers that are better educated will have better lives.
These initiatives not only benefit the workers as they can boost their skills and knowledge at their employer’s expense, but the companies will also benefit since these plans contribute to recruiting, retaining, and developing their staffers.
Once the employees have earned their GED, they can continue to get professional certifications or even a college degree. An employee that doesn’t have a secondary education credential (high school diploma or GED) can usually not enroll in credit-bearing college programs, be it online or at a brick-and-mortar school.
Tuition reimbursement plans
Tuition reimbursement plans offer employees the chance to enhance their educational level while being hired by an employer. And the good thing is that the employer will pick up the tab, partly or entirely.
It used to be that most plans reimbursed the workers when they successfully completed an educational program most of the time, but today, the trend is that employers have arrangements with colleges (online or physical) and will pay upfront.
There’s actually not so much new about “Tuition Assistance Plans,” but nowadays, we can see an increase in the number of corporations that offer tuition support programs. More and more employers are aware that they need to have some plan in order to attract and keep workers in an increasingly challenging job market.
Career Choice Initiative
Let’s take a look at some large corporations that provide educational support for their staff members. A good example is Amazon’s Career Choice Program which recently expanded to work with over 180 colleges and universities to provide substantial tuition support for its staffers.
Under the company’s Career Choice Initiative, both part-time and full-time staff members can earn a professional certificate or an associate or bachelor’s degree at no cost at all to the employee.
Amazon will pay upfront up to $5,250 a year for full-time employees and $2,625 a year for part-time employees so they can earn a certificate or an associate or bachelor’s degree in a high-demand sector such as aircraft mechanics, commercial trucking, nursing, and a lot more. To benefit from this amazing initiative, the company’s employees must have worked with Amazon for 90 days.
Additionally, Amazon brings education literally to the work floor. Today, many North American Amazon facilities provide educational spaces within the workspace where the company’s workers can attend in-person or virtual courses to enhance their skills and knowledge. The following video explains more:
So more and more, employers will pay upfront for college tuition assistance or GED completion plans, and often, the companies work closely together with local community colleges to get their workers trained through online or on-site academic programs. Check out also this post about Dawn Higgins who went from Homeless to Harvard. Such an amazing and inspiring story!
The first step for many workers, however, is getting hold of a secondary education diploma. Without a high school or GED diploma, earning a college certificate or degree is often not possible, so that hurdle has to be dealt with first, and many companies offer financial support.
Workers that have earned their GED diplomas qualify not only for job advancements or promotions but they can also sign up for a university or technical college course to boost their knowledge and skills, which will also benefit the employer.
So these days, many employees can first find a job with a large corporation and work from there to earn their GED or a college degree. You may want to check out this post about online business education options as well.
Paying upfront
In the past, we saw many companies reimbursing part or most of the tuition costs, but the trend these days is more and more that companies will pay upfront and 100 percent of the costs. Onsego offers a complete but very affordable option for workers to earn their GED diplomas. The GED Testing Service, the official organization that designs the GED test, recognizes Onsego as one of only 20 publishers that provide GED prep materials that are fully in line with the current GED test.
Let’s look at some larger corporations that developed initiatives to support their staffers to earn a GED or a college degree entirely at the company’s expense.
Examples
Amazon – Under Amazon’s Career Choice Program, employees with a high school or GED diploma can sign up for a certificate training program or an associate’s or bachelor’s program at more than 180 colleges and universities. The company also supports workers to complete their high school degrees or earn a GED diploma.
Walmart – Walmart and Sam’s Club’s Tuition Assistance Plan is the “Live Better U” program. It allows the company’s employees to earn an academic degree entirely paid upfront from 6 non-profit colleges and universities, including Brandman and Wilmington Universities.
Starbucks – Starbucks’ College Achievement Plan lets the company’s employees earn an online bachelor’s degree from ASU (Arizona State University) completely for free. The employees can choose from over one hundred academic degree programs. This will help the employees stick to their ultimate goals, and that’s exactly what Starbucks wants.
Disney – Disney’s Aspire Tuition Support Program offers full tuition and fees reimbursement to workers completing an undergraduate or graduate degree regardless of the chosen academic field.
Boeing – Boeing’s Learning Together Education Assistance Program pays fully for STEM program tuition costs. The employees can choose from over 300 colleges and universities and their options range from certificate, associate’s, bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degrees.
Discover – Discover has a Tuition Assistance Plan that pays fully for college or university tuition, including fees, books, and supplies, for several online business and technology degrees. From Day One they’re hired, the company’s staff members can benefit from these opportunities.
T-Mobile – T-Mobile partnered with five colleges and universities for its Tuition Assistance Program. Full-time workers can choose from programs at Colorado Tech, University of Phoenix, Ashford University, Purdue-Global, or Capella University while part-time workers can earn online degrees from the University of Phoenix.
Papa John’s – Papa John’s offers its “Dough & Degrees” program that will pay for tuition costs and fees for certificate training and academic degrees from Purdue Global and UM (University of Maryland) Global. The employees may already sign up when they have worked at the company for three months and at least 20 hours a week.
Chipotle – Chipotle’s Cultivate Education Program pays for tuition costs and fees upfront for over 75 associate’s and bachelor’s programs from 9 schools including Oregon State, Wilmington University, and Purdue Global. The workers qualify if they have worked at Chipotle for 120 days at a minimum of 15 hours per week.