Businesses are taking note of their employees’ financial needs when it comes to higher education. Several programs have been implemented across companies to relieve the monetary burden of upper level education. Starbucks and United Technologies are leaders in this employee programming.
United Technologies is an aerospace and defense firm in Connecticut. It has a program known as the Employee Scholar Program. Over the nearly 20 year span of the program, 35,000 employees have earned degrees of various levels in the disciplines they chose. UTC made it clear that their aim was to have the most educated workforce in the world. Elizabeth Amato, a senior vice president from Human Resources, noted that this program also serves as an influential trait for the company. It helps gain plenty of interest from prospective employees and assists in the retention and development of these workers as well.
UTC is very generous in their offerings through the Scholar Program. Tuition, books, and fees are all taken care of for the company’s participants. Another great benefit is the student’s ability to choose any accredited university. Employees even receive paid hours off each week based on how many credits they are managing. Students taking 6 credits are allowed 3 paid hours off each week.
Starbucks offers a significant tuition relief program as well. A few changes exist between this program and the program at UTC. First, Starbucks waits until the student has finished 21 credits before they contribute any funds toward tuition. Also, students do not have a choice of the university they would like to attend. Employees must take courses through Arizona State University’s online offerings.
Overall, United Technologies offers a higher contribution. Starbucks negotiated with ASU to have the tuition rates discounted and therefore puts up a total of $17,000 to cover the difference over two years. The overall value of the program including the amount discounted is $36,700. UTC comes out ahead with an overall offering of $45,000 to students, which comes directly from the company.
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