Amazon selects Texas State University as education partner for Career Choice program

Texas State University announced Jan. 14 that online retail giant Amazon selected the school as a partner in its Career Choice program for its employees.

Amazon’s program previously offered prepaid tuition to hourly employees for training in certain professions the company considers “high demand,” such as aircraft mechanics, commercial truck drivers and nurses, according to its website. Since 2012, more than 50,000 employees have taken advantage of the program globally.

This year, Amazon is expanding the program to include hundreds of education partners across the United States and will pay full college tuition to hourly employees who have been employed with the company for more than 90 days.

Now Texas State can count itself as one of those partners. The company is investing $1.2 billion nationally to facilitate the effort with a goal of 300,000 employees across the country taking advantage of the program by 2025, according to a press release.

“We’re looking forward to Texas State coming on board as an education partner for Career Choice, adding to the hundreds of best-in-class offerings available to our employees,” said Tammy Thiemann, global program lead of Amazon’s Career Choice program.

The program applies to both the San Marcos and Round Rock campuses, according to Texas State spokesperson Jayme Blaschke.

Amazon operates two fulfillment center warehouses in San Marcos and a sortation center in Kyle, and it employs more than 14,500 full- and part-time workers across the Austin-San Antonio corridor, Amazon regional spokesperson Daniel Martin said.