The University of Missouri-Kansas City is partnering with Amazon to offer the company's hourly employees full tuition through Amazon’s Career Choice education program.
The program provides full tuition and course fees for Amazon employees who enroll in degree programs or industry certification programs designed to lead to in-demand jobs.
Amazon employees began enrolling at UMKC in January. The company has several thousand hourly employees within a 100-mile radius of UMKC who are eligible to participate. First step is to visit this page to find easy step-by-step instructions and sign up for contact with an admissions counselor.
This makes the Career Choice program available in the Kansas City area for the first time for in-person classes at an accredited university. UMKC also offers online options. The company launched the benefit program in 2012 and it is available to employees in 14 countries. According to Amazon, more than 50,000 employees around the world have participated since inception, and more than half of Amazon Career Choice participants identify as Black, Hispanic or Native American.
“We are excited and proud to partner with Amazon to help their employees build a better future,” said Jennifer Lundgren, Ph.D., UMKC provost and executive vice chancellor. “Tuition reimbursement benefits are a highly effective path to upward financial mobility and participating in such programs is integral to our mission as a public university.”
UMKC offers more than 125 degree programs and has extensive experience in serving non-traditional students (other than recent high school graduates enrolled full-time).
“We’re looking forward to UMKC 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 Thiemann, 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, more than 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.”