Amazon.com has been criticized over the past year for its treatment of warehouse workers, so its newly announced Career Choice Program for those same employees is bound to face a high level of scrutiny.
The new program, described by Amazon as innovative, offers to pay for 95 percent of eligible workers' tuition, textbooks and associated costs with an annual cap of $2,000, topping out at $8,000 for four years. To be eligible for the program, warehouse workers need to have been employed with the company for three consecutive years and take part in study programs such as aircraft mechanics, computer-aided design, machine tool technologies, medical lab technologies, nursing and others designated by Amazon.
"The program is unusual." said Jeff Bezos, chairman and chief executive of Amazon.com, in a letter posted on the site's homepage. "Unlike traditional tuition reimbursement programs, we exclusively fund education only in areas that are well-paying and in high demand according to sources like the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and we fund those areas regardless of whether those skills are relevant to a career at Amazon."
Amazon has not announced how many of its current employees would be eligible to take advantage of the program.
