Starbucks Reports 1,000 Employees Going to College Next Fall

The employees at the ever popular Starbucks coffee chain are headed to college it seems. Starbuck recently reported that well over 1,000 of its employees have chosen to enroll in the fall 2015 semester at Arizona State University. They are enrolling to jump on the opportunity to have the company aid them in paying their tuition.

According to Starbucks, some of the most popular degree programs that the new students are enrolling in are psychology, organizational leadership, health sciences, mass communications and media study as well as English.

The amount that the Seattle based coffee company will end up paying out in tuition assistance is still undetermined as of now. They have designed a reimbursement program for students and there are variations in the amount to be reimbursed. Starbucks does say that they are expecting to spend “tens of millions of dollar” on tuition reimbursements each year and that the amount will increase as more students utilize the program.

For the most part, the program has been widely applauded since it is rather uncommon for companies that pay out lower wages in a retail environment to offer any sort of tuition assistance. Starbucks definitely stands out here and gained even more praise when they announced that students will not have to remain with the company after graduation as a stipulation for reimbursement. The only stipulation that drew any criticism was the fact that students had to complete 21 credit hours before they were eligible for reimbursement.

Source:

Choi, C. (2014, October 7). Diverse Education. Retrieved October 8, 2014, from http://diverseeducation.com/article/67266/