We have heard of people from different universities working at Starbucks to get some pocket money. But then, Starbucks is thinking of something different. The company has collaborated with Arizona State University to provide its 135,000 employees with free online education that would get them a degree.
Best of all, the company is ready to sponsor the entire tuition fee based on certain criteria, like the credits they have and such. But then, the employee must have clocked 20 hours a week to get into this program. This is a Win-Win situation for Starbucks.
While the other employers think a million times before approving a education loan or sponsor, this bold move by Starbucks is brilliant, and would push the employers to follow its lead. One more advantage of this program is that there are not restrictions like ‘the education program is not available for new employees’. The company is completely open to anyone who is joining them, and wants to study whatever they like.
But if that employee decides to leave Starbucks, anytime, after signing up for the online education program, they walk off with the course they were doing at Starbucks. Now that the employees have the opportunity to do something that would take them to the next level in their life, both Starbucks and Arizona State University are not sure how many employees will take this up.
Starbucks also reveals that the survey proves that almost 70 percent of the employees do not have higher education and would like to earn one. This means, that thousands of employees are going to be applying for this program to earn a degree.
Starbucks is investing about $500 per employee per credit and to get a Bachelor’s Degree at Arizona State University, you need to have 120 credits. And that seems really expensive. This is such a huge move by a company like Starbucks and we can’t wait to see the end results of this program.
Being a believer in higher education and opening up opportunities to people, I completely support this program.
Photo by Steve Webel 