In 2012, tech giant and household hero Amazon launched its Career Choice program. Just this year, our very own University of Central Florida joined the ranks of the Career Choice program to offer all Amazon employees the chance to be a Knight, at their employer’s expense. This new partnership offers covered tuition for full- and part-time staff looking to add to their credentials with a certificate or degree.
Amazon employees with at least 90 days of employment under their belt can apply through the Career Choice program while Amazon prepays UCF directly once approved. Additional criteria for eligible applicants can be found on Amazon’s website under Amazon Career Choice.
With the addition of UCF to the program well underway, employees are adding to the over 50,000 people who have participated in the program all over the world. Amazon looks to enhance their employees’ skill sets, broaden their horizons, and provide them an accessible education. They encourage their employees to pursue the opportunities whether they would like a future with Amazon or with another organization. The company invested $1.2 billion in an effort to realize this dream and aim to upskill over 300,000 people in their workforce by 2025, assisting them in finding higher-paying jobs.
UCF is one of hundreds of third-party educators that have joined Amazon’s mission to provide education. In addition to this new effort, UCF currently has a partnership with Disney Aspire, where they support cast members with free tuition in select degree programs. The university also partners with multiple Fortune 1000 companies, including Taco Bell, Target and Chipotle. Both UCF and Amazon remain dedicated to their students and employees and unite their goal of advancing people not only as individuals but also skilled workers.
Amazon’s Career Choice program provides degrees, certifications, English language classes, high school diplomas, and GEDs to any member of its staff who is interested and eligible. They look beyond employment to see the value people hold and how education can go hand-in-hand with it to provide better pay and better lives for their employees.
Over 600 Knight alumni have already found work with Amazon internationally in roles such as leadership, communications, information technology and more. In February, Amazon Prime featured the university on their show, The College Tour, which gives an exclusive tour of the grounds and life at UCF. You can stream the show on Amazon Video and enjoy the inside look at what our prized university has to offer.
As for Amazon, the mega-successful company continues to invest in Florida and our people. So far, they’ve circulated over $18 billion into our state’s economy. The distribution center located right here in Lake Nona was recently expanded and now offers printing on demand. Their next distribution center will be coming to Daytona along with more than 1,000 available jobs. Less than a year ago, they announced intentions to develop a robotics fulfillment center and five additional delivery stations, and the latter will bring at least 2,000 full-time jobs to our state. Since 2010, they have introduced nearly 60,000 jobs.
In an excerpt from UCF’s website by Amazon’s Career Choice global program lead, Tammy Thieman said, “We’re looking forward to UCF coming on board as an education partner for Career Choice, adding to the hundreds of best-in-class offerings available to our employees. We’re committed to empowering our employees by providing them access to the education and training they need to grow their careers, whether that’s with us or elsewhere. We have intentionally cultivated a partner network of third-party educators and employers committed to providing excellent education, job placement resources, and continuous improvements to the experience. Today, over 50,000 Amazon employees around the world have already participated in Career Choice, and we’ve seen firsthand how it can transform their lives.”
