Amazon partners with Modesto JC, Stanislaus State to pay tuition for Valley employees
Amazon is partnering with the largest higher education institutions in Stanislaus County to provide free tuition to the online retailer’s hourly employees in the region.
Turlock’s California State University, Stanislaus, and Modesto Junior College are part of the company’s Career Choice program, which will pay full tuition at associated institutions for hourly Amazon employees. Across the Central Valley, Amazon also is partnering with California State University, Fresno, Clovis Community College and Sacramento City College.
The program is open to full-time Amazon employees, as well as part-time employees (who receive half, but not full tuition). The e-commerce giant will pay tuition and fees for eligible employees, and partner institutions pay nothing to be part of the program.
Between the regional distribution and fulfillment centers, there are some 21,000 eligible employees who could receive full or partial tuition, said Amazon spokeswoman Natalie Wolfrom.
To be eligible for the program, Amazon employees need to be Tier 1 associates within any of the company’s warehouses. That includes line workers, package sorters, pickers and more. Employees must be with the company for 90 days before they can apply to the Career Choice program.
Besides paying for associate and bachelor’s degree programs, the program also has funds for high school completion, GED and ESL classes and other industry certification programs.
Stanislaus State Dean of Extended and International Education Kari Knutson Miller said partnering with Amazon for the program was a “very good fit” because of the number of potentially eligible employees in the region and the imminent completion of the new million-square-foot fulfillment center in Turlock.
“We’re thrilled that we have an opportunity to provide a Stanislaus State educational experience for Amazon employees and appreciate Amazon’s dedication to the communities where Amazon employees reside,” she said. “It fits our mission and our commitment to serve adult learners and working professionals.”
Amazon is constructing the new fulfillment center off Fulkerth Road just west of Highway 99 in the Turlock Regional Industrial Park. The site is expected to be completed by mid-2022 and be staffed by some 1,000 employees.
Amazon fulfillment centers dot the Valley landscape, cropping up near major freeways and interstates for easy access, including locations in Patterson, Manteca, Tracy and Stockton. The region’s centers range in size from the largest in Stockton, with about 4,000 employees, to smaller sites with some 1,000 to 1,200 workers, said Nicole Bilich, an Amazon human resources manager in Northern California.
The centers in Manteca, Tracy and Patterson combined have more than 8,000 employees, with another 6,000 Amazon workers in the Stockton area and 7,000 in the Sacramento area, Wolfrom said.
The company is also trying to accommodate employees in the Career Choice program with flexible scheduling options so they can take take classes and continue working, she said.
“One of our really driving principles is really up-scaling our associates. We really want to make sure we provide every opportunity for associates to learn more or grow more — within our field or another field,” Bilich said. “We want to give them the experience to grow and be what they want to be.”
Amazon has come under fire over the years for the working conditions in its massive distribution and fulfillment centers. Employees have testified before Congress about the grueling pace and worker pay.
In the Valley, Bilich said hourly jobs at Amazon warehouses start at $17.55. The minimum wage for companies with more than 26 workers in California is $15.
According to Knutson Miller, Amazon is offering annual vouchers of up to $5,250 for tuition for full-time employees and $2,625 for part-time employees. There is no lifetime limit on the number of courses students can enroll in with the program.
Stanislaus State’s tuition and fees for spring 2022 was $2,618 for zero to six units (typically courses are three to five units each), and $3,824 for more than six units. Modesto’s community college charges tuition by the course, which for spring 2022 was $46 per unit (but the college used federal COVID-19 relief funds to waive all enrollment fees for students this semester).
Stanislaus State has about 10,000 students and MJC about 16,000 students for this semester. Knutson Miller said six Amazon employees are already part of the program, which just launched locally, and many more are expected.
The two higher education institutions join some 140 national and local universities across the country that are partnering with Amazon for the Career Choice program, which started in 2012 and was expanded to hourly warehouse workers this year.
For more information about Amazon’s Career Choice program, visit www.aboutamazon.com/news/workplace/career-choice.
This story was originally published March 3, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
