UMSL will serve as an education partner for the Amazon Career Choice program, which provides hourly employees full tuition to learn new skills for career success at Amazon or elsewhere. (Photo by August Jennewein)
Amazon has selected the University of Missouri–St. Louis as a strategic partner to provide educational opportunities to its employees in the St. Louis region through the Amazon Career Choice program.
The program empowers Amazon’s hourly employees to learn new skills for career success at Amazon or elsewhere in the workforce by providing degree, certification and upskilling opportunities. Program benefits include full college tuition, industry certifications designed to lead to in-demand jobs, and foundational skills such as English language proficiency, high school diplomas and GEDs.
Amazon is investing $1.2 billion to upskill more than 300,000 employees by 2025, so they can move into higher-paying, in-demand jobs.
“The University of Missouri–St. Louis is proud to partner with Amazon to enhance educational access and opportunities for its employees,” said Natissia Small, UMSL’s vice provost for access, academic support and workforce integration. “We believe strongly in the power of higher education to transform lives, and with UMSL’s long history of educating and training the St. Louis region’s workforce, we are primed to partner with businesses like Amazon to support their employees in achieving lifelong success.”
Amazon launched its Career Choice program in 2012, and it has now been implemented in 14 countries. More than 50,000 Amazon employees have participated in the program worldwide, including 35,000 in the United States.
More than half of Amazon Career Choice participants identify as Black, Hispanic or Native American, and their most popular fields of study are health care, transportation and information technology.
There is a rigorous selection process for Amazon Career Choice education partners. Those selected are focused on supporting students throughout their educational program, assisting them with job placements and overall offering academic and training programs that lead to career success.
“We look forward to UMSL coming on board as an education partner for Career Choice, adding to the hundreds of best-in-class offerings available to our employees,” said Tammy Thieman, the global program lead of Amazon’s Career Choice program. “We’re committed to empowering our employees by providing them access to the education and training they need to grow their careers, whether that’s with us or elsewhere. We have intentionally cultivated a partner network of third-party educators and employers committed to providing excellent education, job placement resources, and continuous improvements to the experience. Today, over 50,000 Amazon employees around the world have already participated in Career Choice and we’ve seen first-hand how it can transform their lives.”
For more information on Amazon’s Career Choice, visit: https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/workplace/career-choice
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