Corporations are major players in both supporting and providing higher learning. Knowledgeable employees can capitalize on the learning opportunities offered through tuition aid, on-the-job learning, and the formal education and training employers sponsor.
Tuition Aid
Tuition aid occurs an acknowledged and valued benefit of employment at many corporations. During their own training programs, on-site and via distance technologies, corporations also build the knowledge and skills of their workforce. Most employers enlarge those educational programs even further through partnership and collaboration with higher education institutions. Sensible employees can benefit from their employers' interest in education and build their own skills and knowledge.
Lots of employers encourage continued education by supporting their employees' advanced study at colleges and universities.
Tuition aid policies, like any other employee benefit, vary in what they cover, how much they pay for, and when they pay. Although some generous employers pay 100 percent of tuition and fees, others cover tuition but not application fees or other student fees associated with campus life. Also employers can limit the amount paid based on the grades earned, using a payment scale keyed to the grade. They are able to choose to set a dollar limit for each employee based on the calendar or fiscal year. Employers may also vary as to when they will pay the agreed-upon tuition. Some prefer to pay tuition in advance and deal directly with you, the employee. Others send a tuition voucher directly to the institution where you are enrolled, and all the fiscal transactions will occur between the employer and the educational institution. And others compensate your costs after your course is completed, thus requiring you to fund the initial program costs.
Employers usually set programmatic limits on what they will support. Many support colleges and universities that are regionally accredited. Some also support institutions with other specialized accreditation, such as the Distance Education and Training Council or recognition by the American Council on Education.
Legal issues commonly also affect corporate tuition aid policies. On occasion, the law defines tuition aid as a benefit free of tax implications only when the advanced education is job-related. Then some of the employers support only programs identified as job-related, a concept that is sometimes difficult to define. For an employee accounting courses of the accounting department are clearly job-related, but the question of whether liberal arts courses are job-related is more ambiguous, and tuition reimbursement policies vary widely. Sometimes, tuition aid may be defined as additional income and is treated as taxable.
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