It follows the company's commitment to help employees move further in their careers
Retail giant Amazon is expanding one of its benefit programmes with an offering of one-on-one academic and career coaching for employees.
Under its Career Choice programme, which already has over 80,000 total participants, employees will receive virtual one-on-one coaching to help them identify the academic programmes that are aligned with their skills and long-term goals.
This is an expansion from the benefit's previous inclusions, which already offer pre-paid college tuition to hourly employees.
According to the company's announcement, the benefit aims to improve academic outcomes for employees, especially for lower-income or first-generation postsecondary students.
"While Career Choice has always been complemented by advisement services, feedback from participants has shown that more comprehensive and ongoing coaching would help employees choose programmes better aligned to their career goals," said Tammy Thieman, Global Director for Career Choice at Amazon.
"We want Amazon team members to successfully navigate the challenges of going to school while working and ultimately use their new skills to find incredible opportunities."
Amazon is partnering up with education organisations Beyond 12 and Kaplan for the expansion of its Career Choice programme.
Read more: Amazon ends paid time off for COVID-positive staff
Beyond 12, which is expected to provide coaching for the benefit's participants, said they are "pleased" to partner with Amazon in its goals.
"Eliminating the barrier of tuition is a tremendous benefit for Amazon employees, but postsecondary education completion gaps can't be ignored," Beyond 12 founder and CEO Alexandra Bernadotte in a statement.
"Our coaching programme helps identify and address the systemic and structural barriers students face before those challenges lead them to drop out. We're pleased to partner with Amazon to go beyond getting students 'into' college and focus on getting students 'through' college."
Kaplan, on the other hand, is expected to connect employees to career services to improve their job placement.
"Kaplan is committed to helping people succeed, and this exciting new partnership with Amazon builds on our proud legacy of changing lives and building stronger futures. We're thrilled to be empowering so many thousands of hardworking employees at Amazon and look forward to being at their side until they've reached their educational and professional objectives," said Greg Marino, CEO of Kaplan's North America division.
Amazon's Career Choice programme, one of its nine skills training programmes, was launched by the retail giant to help employees in overcoming the biggest barriers to their education.
Thieman said they are excited to join hands with Beyond 12 and Kaplan for its expansion.
"These partnerships with Beyond 12 and Kaplan are a game-changing enhancement to our programme and the careers of Amazon’s employees," said the director.
