By Cathy Bussewitz
NEW YORK (AP) — After working on five long nights as a truck driver, Julius Mosley wanted a change. He discovers he is not driving and his teenage son needs him to spend more time at home.
So Mosley took up a job as a customer service representative for a telecommunications company near her home. Employee benefits included free work-related classes. He decided he wanted to study leadership so that he could learn about managing his team and helping people become the best version of himself.
His company, Spectrum, paid for the 10-week frontline manager certificate programme that Mosley completed. He then covered the tuition fees for his Bachelor’s Degree in Leadership and Organizational Studies, which he is currently pursuing. The company also promoted him to management while filming university courses online.
“It completely changed my course of life,” Mosley said of the benefits of education. “It’s a blessing to be able to do this.”
Due to the rising costs of higher education, some adults help employers pay for university and professional qualifications, as many U.S. residents feel they are unattainable or illogical. According to the Human Resources Management Association (SHRM), almost half of public and private employers have tuition reimbursement programs for employees.
Amy Dufrane, CEO of the Institute for Human Resource Certification, which provides qualifications to HR professionals, said many employers who provide tuition assistance will refund up to $5,250 a year, as the amount is tax-deductible.
Some companies offer more, including Bank of America, which offers tuition assistance of up to $7,500 a year. In addition to the prepaid teaching program, employees with a master’s degree will be refunded or registered for classes outside the prepaid programme, up to $10,000 compared to the previous year.
“For companies looking to attract Generation Z and millennials, they are a great way to implement them because they are passionate about how they are investing and the benefits available,” Dufrane said.
According to James Atkinson, SHRM’s Vice President of Thought Leadership, many university graduates begin employment after accumulating student loan debt, so about 8% of employers also provide assistance in repayment of student loans.
If continuing education feels financially out of reach or appears to be incompatible with job demands, experts say there are ways to explore the possibilities by appealing to their employers or seeking jobs where they offer education benefits.
Pay-forward model
In traditional tuition reimbursement programs, employees will lay out thousands of dollars to pay for tuition, books and fees at the start of the semester, and usually require them to complete the course at the passing stage before the company can make a contribution.
This means that employees often wait 4-6 months before being refunded. This only works with wealthier workers, said Paul Marchand, Chief Human Resources Officer at Spectrum.
“People who can put it on their credit card and sit at a cost of $3 or $4 or $5,000 don’t worry about that cost. It’s not our average worker.” “Our average worker makes $25, $28, $30 per hour. Maybe they’re doing a second job. They’re probably close parents with their kids.
Spectrum has launched a program that allows employees to sign up for a series of certificates or university courses without paying anything themselves. Eligible courses and where to take them came from the employer and Guild, a Denver company that receives support from workforce development and tuition fees.
Walmart offers similar benefits to frontline associates who can register for college or specific classes without looking at the invoice, according to company spokesman Jimmy Carter. The profits also extend to the employees’ families, he said.
Help me pay off your loan
As recent college graduates suffer from university debt, some employers have added student loan repayment programs and tuition support.
Training analysts at Morgan Woods, 29, Semiconductor Manufacturer GlobalFoundries graduated from college with a debt load of $20,000. Her employer pays $125 a month for student loans. This is an amount that increases over time.
Woods is now hoping to pay off her loan four years earlier than she expected to do it herself, and hopes it will improve her options when she explores buying a home.
“The fact that I’m just going beyond what I thought was more than a year ago is so nice to see,” she said.
Make a claim
Not all employers provide education benefits, and when they do, they are not always widely publicized. To see if your employer offers such benefits, ask your manager or HR representative.
Dufrane advised that courses and training are directly related to your role and how it helps you do your job more effectively. Even if there is no formal tuition reimbursement program, employers may still acquire training or professional development budgets.
“If you are taking on the role of stretching or entering a new industry, you can advocate for training as part of your offer. Say, “I want to take a course that will help you speed up in this area.” In my experience, it shows that initiatives and employers often respect that,” Dufen said.
Also, Dufrane has been added, approaching my boss and saying, “I want to move up, but I want to invest in myself. What recommendations do you have?”
Find time
Fitting in classes, study sessions, and paper writing can be challenging when keeping your full-time job under control, but there are ways to make it work.
Rene Sotolongo, a cybersecurity analyst at the Human Resources Certification Institute, earned her Masters in Cybersecurity using tuition reimbursement benefits from her employer. To manage his time, he worked Monday through Thursday through Thursday, studied on weekday nights, dedicated to other studies from Friday through Sunday.
“There’s no way I can do without tuition reimbursement and organizational flexibility,” says Sotorongo, who has a PhD with the support of HRCI. “It’s rewarding in every way.”
Dufrane said that providing flexibility demonstrates commitment to employees. “You have to be flexible around learning, because people have parents they care for and children they care for, and going home at night is not always the best time to write a paper,” she said.
Fitting academically while meeting the needs of her son, fiance, full-time job, and puppy, it was challenging for Mosley, but also provided a way to model her son’s research behavior.
“Not only is he telling him he needs to do, but now he’s watching me do his studies and actually helped him want to do his job,” Mosley said. “It was a life-changing situation as we actually spend a few days sitting together and taking time to work on our homework.”
Share your workplace health stories and questions at cbussewitz@ap.org. Follow AP coverage with a focus on wellness, fitness, diet and mental health at https://apnews.com/hub/be-well.
