Amazon boosts college tuition for workers. Which Fresno-area institutions are included?
As many as 6,500 Amazon employees in the Fresno area may be eligible for an expanded educational program in which the company pays for their college tuition to earn a two- or four-year degree or technical certificate.
Amazon officials announced Thursday that they are partnering with Fresno State and Clovis Community College as part of the online retail giant’s Career Choice Program for employees.
The two Fresno-area colleges are among five institutions in the Central Valley that are now associated with the program under a nationwide $1.2 billion investment by Amazon, said Nicole Bilich, the company’s Stockton-based human resources manager for Northern California.
“Amazon really wants to invest in its employees and help them get where they want to career-wise, or to change careers if they want,” Bilich told The Bee in a telephone interview. “The investment of $1.2 billion is testament to how much we really want our employees to be the best they can be.”
“We’ve always had a lot of educational opportunities for our associates,” she added. “But we’ve recently expanded that to allow more associates to have access to the program.” The Career Choice program was first launched about 10 years ago.
The other participating colleges in the region are Stanislaus State in Turlock, Modesto Junior College in Modesto and Sacramento City College.
For full-time employees, the program pays for tuition for students for however long it takes them to complete their degree, whether it’s an associate degree at a participating community college, a bachelor’s degree at a college or university or a certificate program at a vocational school. Part-time employees are eligible for the program to pay up to half of the cost of their education, Bilich said
Eligibility for employees has only two conditions: that they have worked for Amazon for at least 90 days, and have no internal disciplinary action in progress.
Amazon has built about 110 classrooms in its facilities nationwide to accommodate on-site college classes. Bilich said Amazon warehouses in Northern California have training rooms that could serve that purpose if needed.
Amazon’s entry into Fresno as a major employer came in mid-2018 when it opened a massive order-fulfillment center on the southern fringe of the city. It has since expanded with additional facilities, and construction is under way on yet another warehouse in southeast Fresno to stage orders for the “last mile” of the delivery process from the company to customers’ doors.
