While graduating college debt-free used to be a luxury only available to student athletes or academically gifted students, one major U.S. corporation is making that opportunity available to any student willing to work hard.
Metro College has been a partnership between the UPS shipping company and the University of Louisville for the past 20 years. By design, students who join the program work part-time for UPS and receive both payment and tuition reimbursement while they are employed with the company.
According to program rules, students recruited into the program are assigned part-time work as a package handler during the third shift at UPS Worldport in Louiseville, Ky. In return, students are paid for their work and also receive fully paid tuition at the University of Louisville or Jefferson Community & Technical College each semester.
In addition to the tuition reimbursement, students are also given incentives to do well in their studies through financial cash bonuses for academic progress. Students also receive a small stipend each semester to help offset the cost of textbooks.
Since the program’s inception in 1998, UPS has helped more than 17,000 students in Kentucky pursue a college education without the worry of taking on excessive student loans.
The success of the UPS Metro College partnership is a case study in how companies in need of manual labor can incentivize young people to come work for them. In this case, a private company was able to build a relationship with a public university and incentivize young people to pursue a college degree while working to support themselves. In addition to providing labor for UPS, the relationship also assists public universities who rely on students to take advantage of their subsidized education that is often cheaper than a private university.
While current millennials may not be fond of manual labor and prefer sitting in front of a computer, incentivizing such work with a chance to earn a college education, without any student debt, is a great way to recruit millennials to your workplace.
John Patrick (@john_pat_rick) is a graduate of Canisius College and Georgia Southern University. He interned for Red Alert Politics during the summer of 2012 and has continued to contribute regularly.
