With the hiring market more competitive than ever, Amazon is expanding its free college tuition offering to more than 750,000 operations employees across the U.S., covering the cost of classes, books and related fees, according to a company press release Friday (July 29).
In total, Amazon has now committed $1.2 billion in education and skills training to U.S. employees through 2025 as part of the Career Choice program, which also covers high school diplomas, GEDs and English as a Second Language (ESL) proficiency certifications for its front-line employees.
Amazon also has three education programs for employees who want to learn skills related to data center maintenance and technology, IT, and user experience and research design, the company press release says.
“Amazon is now the largest job creator in the U.S., and we know that investing in free skills training for our teams can have a huge impact for hundreds of thousands of families across the country,” said Dave Clark, CEO of Worldwide Consumer at Amazon, in the press release. “We launched Career Choice almost 10 years ago to help remove the biggest barriers to continuing education — time and money — and we are now expanding it even further to pay full tuition and add several new fields of study.”
Amazon has more than 110 on-site classrooms for its employees at fulfillment centers in 37 states. More than 50,000 Amazon employees have been part of the Career Choice program since its inception.
Related: Amazon Plans to Add Over 4,000 UK Jobs Despite Global Slowdown
Last month, Amazon announced it would add more than 4,000 new permanent roles across the U.K. by the end of this year, putting its total headcount in the area at about 75,000 and meaning it will have created about 40,000 new jobs in the U.K. in the past three years.
The company’s operations also support more than 410,000 jobs beyond its direct employees.
The latest round of hiring will include roles in corporate and technology functions in Amazon and Amazon Web Services (AWS), including software development, product management, engineering and operations team positions in fulfillment centers, sort centers and delivery stations. Amazon is opening new fulfillment centers in Wakefield and Knowsley.
Amazon had previously announced the creation of 1,500 new apprenticeships in 2022.
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