ST. LOUIS — Amazon.com Inc. has chosen four local universities and colleges to provide fully-funded college tuition to hourly employees in the St. Louis area.
They are the University of Missouri-St. Louis, St. Louis Community College, St. Charles Community College and Western Governors University Missouri.
Amazon’s Career Choice program enables its employees to learn new skills to advance at Amazon or elsewhere by providing degree, certification and training opportunities. In addition to Amazon paying for the full college tuition, the program’s benefits include industry certifications designed to lead to in-demand jobs, and foundational skills such as English language proficiency, high school diplomas and GEDs.
Amazon said it is spending $1.2 billion to “up-skill” more than 300,000 employees by 2025, so they can move into higher-paying, in-demand jobs.
The company's facilities in the St. Louis area include fulfillment centers in St. Peters and Edwardsville, known as STL4. The company announced in December that it is rebuilding the delivery station near STL4 that was damaged by a tornado, killing six of the company's workers. Last year, Amazon said that since 2010, it had created more than 9,000 full- and part-time jobs in Missouri.
Amazon on Thursday announced the selection of 140 universities and colleges to offer the program. WGU Missouri, a nonprofit online university based in Clayton, said Amazon employees began to take its online courses in mid-December. Ten business and information technology programs are available. Employees in Metro East can access the courses through Salt Lake City, Utah-based WGU, the parent of the Missouri affiliate.
"This is an amazing opportunity for the Amazon associates to realize a lifelong dream without having to pay for that," said Angie Besendorfer, chancellor of WGU Missouri and regional vice president for the Midwest. "Our whole idea at WGU is creating pathways to opportunity and this is certainly a fabulous pathway to an opportunity that they can do to up-skill at Amazon or take their next journey and fulfill their dream of where they want to be."
UMSL said 12 Amazon employees began taking courses in January. More employees are expected to sign up for classes that start in the summer.
Read the full story on the St. Louis Business Journal website.
