By CATHY BUSSEWITZ
NEW YORK (AP) — After five years of working long nights as a truck driver, Julius Mosley wanted a change. He found driving unfulfilling, and his teenage son needed him to spend more time at home.
So Mosley took a job as a customer service representative at a telecommunications company near his home. The employee benefits included being able to take job-related classes for free. He decided he wanted to study leadership so he could learn about managing teams and helping people become the best versions of themselves.
His company, Spectrum, paid for a 10-week front-line manager certificate program that Mosley went on to complete. Then it covered the tuition cost for a bachelor’s degree in leadership and organization studies that he’s currently pursuing. The company also promoted him to a management position while he took college courses online.
“It’s completely changed the course of my life,” Mosley said about the education benefit, which took care of his tuition up front instead of requiring him to pay and seek later reimbursement. “It’s truly a blessing to be able to do this.”
As higher education costs have grown to heights many U.S. residents find unattainable or illogical, some adults are looking to their employers for help defraying the expense of college and professional credentials. Nearly half of public and private employers have a tuition reimbursement program for employees, according to the Society for Human Resource Management, or SHRM.
Many employers that provide tuition assistance reimburse staff members up to $5,250 per year because that amount is tax-deductible, said Amy Dufrane, CEO of the Human Resource Certification Institute, which offers credentials to HR professionals.
Some companies offer more, including Bank of America, which provides tuition assistance of up to $7,500 annually, and Spectrum which, in addition to its prepaid tuition program, reimburses employees earning master’s degrees or enrolled in classes that fall outside the scope of its prepaid program up to $10,000 per year.
“For companies who are looking to attract Generation Z and Millennials, it’s a great way to bring them in because they’re keenly interested in how companies are investing in them and the benefits that are available,” said Dufrane.
Because many college graduates start jobs after accumulating student loan debt, about 8% of employers also offer help with student loan repayment, according to James Atkinson, vice president of thought leadership at SHRM.
If continuing education feels out of reach financially or seems incompatible with job demands, experts say there are ways to explore the possibility, either by by making the case to your employer or seeking a position at a place that provides education benefits.
A pay-it-forward model
In traditional tuition reimbursement programs, employees lay out thousands of dollars to pay for tuition, books and fees at the start of a semester, and usually must complete the course with a passing grade before a company would kick in its contribution.
That means employees would often wait four to six months before being reimbursed, which only works for more affluent workers, said Paul Marchand, chief human resources officer at Spectrum.
“The person that can afford to put it on their credit card and sit with $3- or $4- or $5,000 of expenses due back to them and not be concerned about that cost, that is not our average worker,” Marchand said. “Our average worker is making $25, $28, $30 bucks an hour, maybe having a second job, maybe a single parent with kids, … and they’re important workers for us, and we want to help develop them and grow their careers.”
Spectrum launched a program that lets employees sign up for an array of certificates or college courses while paying nothing themselves. The eligible courses and where to take them came from Guild, a Denver company that works with employers on workforce development and tuition assistance.
Walmart offers a similar benefit to its front-line associates, who can enroll in college or certain classes without ever seeing an invoice, according to company spokesperson Jimmy Carter. The benefit also extends to family members of the employees, he said.
Help with loan repayment
As recent college graduates have struggled with debts from college, some employers have added student loan repayment programs as well as tuition assistance.
Morgan Woods, 29, a training analyst at semiconductor manufacturer GlobalFoundries, graduated from college with a $20,000 debt load. Her employer is paying $125 per month toward her student loans, a sum that will increase over time.
Woods now expects to pay off her loans four years earlier than she anticipated doing on her own and hopes it will improve her options as she explores buying a house.
“The fact that I’m now ahead of where I thought I would be a little over a year ago is very nice to see,” she said.
Making the case
Not all employers offer education benefits, and when they do, they’re not always widely publicized. To find out if your employer offers such benefits, ask a manager or a human resources representative.
Show how a course or training directly relates to your role and how it would help you do your job more effectively, Dufrane advised. Even if there’s no formal tuition reimbursement program, your employer might have a training or professional development budget.
“If you’re taking on a stretch role or entering a new industry, you can advocate for training as part of your offer. Say something like, ‘I’d like to take a course to help me get up to speed in this area.’ In my experience, that shows initiative and employers often respect it,” Dufrane said.
You can also approach your boss and say, “I want to move up and I want to invest in myself. What recommendations do you have for me?” Dufrane added.
Finding the time
Fitting in classes, study sessions and paper writing can be daunting when holding down a full-time job, but there are ways to make it work.
Rene Sotolongo, a cybersecurity analyst at the Human Resource Certification Institute, earned a master’s degree in cybersecurity using tuition reimbursement benefits from his employer. To manage his time, he switched to working Monday through Thursday, studied on weeknights and dedicated Friday through Sunday to other schoolwork.
“Without the tuition reimbursement or the organization’s flexibility, there’s no way that I would be able to” earn advanced degrees, said Sotolongo, who is now pursuing a PhD with assistance from HRCI. “It’s rewarding in every aspect.”
Providing flexibility shows commitment to employees, Dufrane said. “You’ve got to be flexible around learning because people have parents they’re taking care of and kids they’re taking care of, and going home at night isn’t always the best time to be writing a paper,” she said.
Fitting in schoolwork while also meeting the needs of a son, a fiancee, a full-time job and a puppy has been challenging for Mosley, but it also provided a way to model studious behavior for his son.
“Instead of me just telling him he needs to do his, now he’s seeing me doing schoolwork, so that actually helped out with him wanting to do his work more,” Mosley said. “We actually take time to sit down together some days to work on our homework, so it’s been a life-changing situation.”
Share your stories and questions about workplace wellness at cbussewitz@ap.org. Follow AP’s Be Well coverage, focusing on wellness, fitness, diet and mental health at https://apnews.com/hub/be-well
