Starbucks employees can now complete their studies at a minimal cost. The coffee-shop giant will partner with Arizona State University to offer online courses to their workers at extremely discounted rates.
The company will provide the option to 135,000 U.S. employees who work at least 20 hours a week. The world's largest coffee chain said the new program, 'Starbucks College Achievement Plan,' will replace the current one that offers workers up to $1,000 a year for education at certain schools. Around 25 percent Starbucks employees already have a bachelor's degree.
Not only this, the Seattle-based company says it will not bind the workers who will get their degrees through the program to stay with Starbucks. The employees will also have an option to choose from 40 undergraduate degree programs including engineering, nursing and business.
Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz will announce about the deal, Monday. "There's no doubt, the inequality within the country has created a situation where many Americans are being left behind," he said in a statement.
Tuition fee for an online degree at ASU is around $10,000 a year, roughly the same for its conventional educational programs. For the freshmen and sophomore years, Starbucks and Arizona State say they will shell almost $6,500 on average toward the estimated $20,000 in total tuition, reports the Associated Press.The employees will have to apply for financial aid in order to cover the remaining $13,500.
According to Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of EdVisors.com, a website about college payments, workers at Starbucks do not get a hefty salary. So, most of them would possibly qualify for a Pell grant. He explained that employees getting full Pell grant of $5,730 a year or $11,460 over two years, would hypothetically be left with nearly $2,040 to pay out of pocket.
Starbucks did not reveal how much it expects to spend on the program. "We will know more of what the investment will be once partners (employees) sign up over the next year," Laurel Harper, company spokeswoman, told Reuters.
The company has at least 11,600 stores in the U.S. Only the employees working with Starbucks' 8200 company-operated outlets will be eligible for the program. Rest 4,500 locations in the U.S. are managed by franchisees.
The program, however, is not exclusive to Starbucks. Other U.S. companies offer college tuition reimbursement with some companies having stricter requirements. L Brands Inc., owner of Victoria's Secret, gives employees who have worked at least one year full-time as much as $3,000 a year for college tuition, reports Bloomberg. Home Depot Inc. offers tuition reimbursement for salaried and full-time hourly workers.
