Employment and Jobs

Amazon Turns Upskilling on Its Head

May 10, 2018  • UpSkill America

UpSkill America is an employer-led movement to expand opportunity for America’s workers and allow our economy and communities to thrive. As part of our mission to advance the upskilling movement, we are pleased to share the following news featuring one of our partners.

In a hot job market, it’s hard enough to figure out how to spot rising talent and then have a plan for how to keep that talent in your company. So training employees and giving them job skills in other high-demand industries (not related to the industry your company competes in) is madness—right? You’re incentivizing them to leave—no one would do that. Actually, Amazon is doing just that, as they recently disclosed in Jeff Bezos’ annual shareholder letter. The program is called Amazon Career Choice. Jeff Bezos described it as “For hourly associates with more than one year of tenure, we pre-pay 95 percent of tuition, fees, and textbooks (up to $12,000) for certificates and associate degrees in high-demand occupations,” including healthcare, IT, computer science, transportation, and mechanical & skilled trades. (This paragraph was excerpted from “Amazon Is Paying Its Employees $12,000 to Train for a Job at Another Company. And It’s Brilliant” by Inc.’s Scott Mautz. Click here to read more.)

Amazon is frequently recognized for its upskilling efforts and is a featured player in our UpSkilling Playbook for Employers. Learn more about Amazon’s Career Choice program in our section on Models of Upskilling: College Degrees and in this exclusive interview with Juan Garcia, Amazon’s Global Leader for Career Advancement.

 

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Amazon is training its employees for better jobs—even if those jobs exist somewhere else. Learn how the company’s Career Choice program is helping to advance the #upskilling movement.

“We offer training paths that could very likely lead to opportunities and careers outside of Amazon, but we think if we can help people realize their dreams, we want to be a part of it.” @garciajm3D

“It pays to be creative in supporting your employees’ skill and career development.” @scott_mautz

 

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Five Questions for Amazon’s Global Leader for Career Advancement, Juan Garcia
August 2, 2016 • UpSkill America & 1 more

 

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