What You Need to Know About Employee Assistance For Higher Education

Given how difficult the job market is, there is a hidden benefit: you can go back to school on the boss’ tab.

With the economy improving along with the labor market, employers have to face stiff competition in order to hire the best talent.

This is leading to companies increasing tuition assistance for people to take classes and earn certificates and degrees available.

 Three example of companies paying for their employees are Starbucks, health insurer Anthem and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. All of them cover expenses for undergraduate studies at Arizona State University, Southern New Hampshire University and Strayer University.

Most companies continue to remain within the $5250 limit for annual contributions to an employee’s education. This is for the reason that until this figure it remains tax-free. But companies can go a bit further: they negotiate with universities for a better deal on tuition. In fact, this will be the best amount than you can ever get.

Using the companies above as examples, Starbucks reduces tuition fees by 42% while Anthem has gotten a program with College of America for $2500 in a year or less. This will become a trend as more colleges roll out online programs.

Even though some companies only restrict employees to study only job-related programs, others allow them to take a variety of majors and not related to their line of work.

When it comes to payments, students will be reimbursed by the company at the end of each semester while companies such as Verizon and Fiat Chrysler pay it upfront.

Still, there might terms and conditions to taking up a course of study while working. Sometimes, one has to be academically successful in order to avail of these benefits.