Maniala Lucien, an immigrant from Haiti who remade herself in Florida, always wanted to earn a college degree, but between raising three children and working as a housekeeper at Disney resorts, it seemed impossible.
Then she received a postcard from her employer with an offer: study a degree part-time online, with tuition fully paid.
“I didn’t believe it at first, but I thought I had nothing to lose,” she recalls. “I signed up within minutes and within five weeks I was enrolled… I still can’t believe I have a bachelor’s degree and now almost a master’s degree, and I haven’t paid anything for books or tuition.”
Disney’s Aspire program, launched in 2018, has funded the graduation of 4,800 employees. The media and entertainment group is one of a growing number of American companies funding their employees to study degrees and other courses in their spare time.
Some companies focus on improving skills that are relevant to employees’ current jobs (such as HR training, for example), while others use the benefit as a way to attract or retain staff by offering a variety of new subjects.
“It’s not just about helping top talent put their careers and dreams within reach,” says Tonya Cornileus, Disney’s senior vice president of learning. “It’s a great way to help us attract a diverse talent pool.”
Proponents of the training approach say it is a powerful social and economic good, opening up America’s expensive higher education system to people who would otherwise be marginalized and helping employers attract, retain and train workers with the skills they need. But critics see it as an unsatisfactory outcome of America’s difficult-to-access university system, warning that courses are often of poor quality and supply is limited.
The boom began a decade ago, when Michael Crow, president of Arizona State University, met Howard Schultz, then chairman and chief executive of Starbucks. The two were part of a task force for Rework America, a network focused on improving the labor market through training. But the group’s progress seemed slow. “We thought this would take forever, and what could we do with Starbucks now?” Crow recalls.
Schultz was thinking about how to help some of the 75 percent of his staff who had some college credits but hadn’t managed to complete their degrees. “We were trying to remedy these shortcomings of American higher education, and we thought, why not create a Starbucks college achievement program?” Crow says.
His vision was to make ASU accessible to more people by offering online classes — a radical proposition before the pandemic prompted a widespread shift to remote work and study. The institution invested in an online platform and signed up university faculty to teach there. Since 2014, ASU has taught 25,000 Starbucks employees, nearly half of whom have graduated.
Other large employers have launched similar programs with ASU, including Uber, which since 2018 has funded 1,000 drivers through courses ranging from nursing to political science. Liza Winship, director of U.S. and Canada driver operations, says the program is intended to “reward drivers for their commitment… We really look at it as an investment in becoming the best option for flexible employment. We don’t necessarily see Uber as the end-all-be-all.”
However, there are questions about the extent to which employer-funded training influences the quality of the workforce or the opportunities available to individual workers.
Two decades ago, Wharton Business School professor Peter Cappelli Completed that workers who received support for university expenses from their employer were more productive and loyal than those who did not, at least while they were studying.
Starbucks says staff who go through its college program are promoted at nearly three times the rate of other U.S. employees and typically stay with the company 50 percent longer.
But Cappelli is less convinced by the current round of programs, which he says “may be a cheap way to generate better PR.” “Employers are only willing to support really cheap online education programs,” he notes, which may not give students the same boost in social mobility as in-person degrees.
Corporate programs certainly include an element of self-interest. Employers receive tax breaks on tuition expenses of up to $5,250 per year per employee. Universities also benefit, as online training allows them to increase student numbers and fees with minimal additional costs.
The recent interest has also created an ancillary industry of small businesses that match employees with courses. One such company, Guild Education, says demand has increased among its clients, which include retailers Walmart and Target, and restaurant chain Chipotle, as “we’ve started to see the pressure of talent shortages on companies.”
“It has become strategic to find ways to close the skills gap, think about the future of the workforce and retain talent,” says Guild Education CEO Bijal Shah.
At rival InStride, college director Michelle Westfort says the tough U.S. job market means employers’ needs have evolved. “Retention has historically been a driving factor. Now it’s become about diversity, specific skill development and career mobility.”
One of the companies InStride is helping is Utah-based Intermountain Healthcare. “My biggest concern right now is not so much filling open positions,” says Intermountain vice president and chief learning officer Marguerite Samms. “Things are changing so quickly, and the challenge is the skills gap. We could have all the positions filled and not be able to upskill our workforce fast enough.”
The online courses Intermountain funds, primarily at Colorado Technical University, especially benefit indigenous workers and those living in remote rural areas. “There are a lot of social barriers to getting an education, especially for new Americans, those with lower incomes and who are racially marginalized,” Samms says.
Training programmes have limitations. The balancing act of work, family and studies means that many participants do not complete their courses. The conditions imposed by companies vary widely and some are only willing to reimburse a limited selection of courses.
Worker requirements also vary, though staff typically have to work a minimum number of hours to qualify. Uber, for example, only allows its most active drivers to participate, who must continue to work a certain number of hours to receive tuition reimbursement.
Starbucks has taken some steps to allay those concerns: It allows employees’ family members to join and now pays tuition fees up front, rather than reimbursing participants. It has also worked with ASU to offer support, such as language classes and tutoring.
Grace Alhadjaboodi, a shift supervisor and bargaining officer for Starbucks Workers United in the Texas region, is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in biology at ASU as part of the program.
He says the benefit should be improved by building it into employee contracts so that it is no longer discretionary, and that staff should be guaranteed the 20 hours of work per week required to qualify for the tuition. Starbucks currently expects staff to have whatever hours they want, but does not guarantee it.
“It’s a nice benefit, but we want to make sure people can access it,” Alhadjaboodi says.
After completing his bachelor’s degree in hotel management, Lucien is now studying for a master’s degree in human resources. He hopes to pursue that field at Disney. “My son, who is in high school, is ready to join me” in the mentoring program, he says. “His [college] They will pay me the same as me. It opened many doors for me.”