Dive Brief:
- JetBlue announced an expansion of its JetBlue Scholars program to provide crew members a path to earn their master's degrees at reduced and affordable rates.
- Participants can seek degrees from City University of New York School of Professional Studies, Louisiana State University Shreveport, Thomas Edison State University, University of Maryland University College and Western Governors University. The Master's Pathways program will provide access to advanced degrees in leadership, business management, IT, leadership, aviation management or the liberal arts.
- JetBlue selected institutions based on online graduate program offerings, affordability and support that will be provided to students for their new JetBlue Scholars Master's Pathways program. Through this expansion, employees will have access to a wider range of disciplines, pricing and learning pace to meet the needs of as many learners as possible, JetBlue said. To date, more than 1,000 employees have enrolled in the programming, with 185 already having earned a degree.
Dive Insight:
The more training employees get, the more they want, a report from Cerego revealed. Employers appear to be taking this finding seriously. Papa John's, for example, announced its offering of free degrees to corporate employees in February. Other companies, like Walmart, are partnering with organizations such as Guild Education to offer financial assistance to employees seeking educational opportunities.
The cost of graduate programs and the prospect of adding additional student loan debt may make securing advanced degrees an impossibility for many. Some companies are looking for ways to assist their workers in paying down what may be crushing debt; Chegg announced its Equity for Education program, which creates an equity pool from existing stock to help employees with education loans.
Student debt relief perks do not go unnoticed by applicants and employees. More than three-quarters of workers with student loan debt want employers to offer repayment benefits, according to a study from CommonBond.
