Starbucks To Provide FREE College Education To Its Employees

June 16, 2014

Starbucks will provide a FREE online college education to thousands of its workers, without requiring that they remain with the company, through an unusual arrangement with Arizona State University.

Monica Almeida/The New York Times

The program is open to any of the company's 135,000 United States employees, provided they work at least 20 hours a week and have the grades and test scores to gain admission to Arizona State.

Monica Almeida/The New York Times

Many employers offer tuition reimbursement. But those programs usually come with limitations like the full cost not being paid, new employees being excluded, requiring that workers stay for years afterward, or limiting reimbursement to work-related courses.

Starbucks is, in effect, inviting its workers, from the day they join the company, to study whatever they like, and then leave whenever they like — knowing that many of them, degrees in hand, will leave for better-paying jobs.

Via NY Times