Amazon offers to pay for employees’ studies — even if they leave after

Wow. This is Big. Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos today took over the company’s front page to announce that it would be paying for some its employees to study in high-demand fields.

According to Bezos, the online giant will pay up to 95% of the cost of courses such as aircraft mechanics, computer-aided design, machine tool technologies, medical lab technologies, and nursing for its fulfilment centre employees.

These are the people working in the massive warehouses where the company’s products are shipped and stored, some of whom are only brought on as relief workers during the busy holiday season.

According to Bezos:

The program is unusual. Unlike traditional tuition reimbursement programs, we exclusively fund education only in areas that are well-paying and in high demand according to sources like the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, and we fund those areas regardless of whether those skills are relevant to a career at Amazon.

The interesting thing is that Amazon’s actively funding courses in subjects that aren’t necessarily applicable to a career with Amazon.

It’s unclear what the payout, aside from the eventual wider benefits to the economy and general employee happiness, would be for Amazon.

In fact, Bezos doesn’t really seem all that sure himself:

Like many of our innovations at Amazon, the Career Choice Program is an experiment. We’re excited about it and hope it will pay big dividends for some of our employees. This is one innovation that we hope other companies in this economy will copy.