Starbucks has announced that they will contribute to the college tuition of thousands of their US workers.
The coffee house chain has partnered with Arizona State University (ASU) to offer discounts on around 40 different online bachelor’s degrees for all its US employees that work more than 20 hours per week.
Around 135,000 employees will be eligible for the programme, which offers partial tuition paid for the first two years of a course, and full tuition for the final two years, in courses which range from engineering to education.
Employees will have no obligation to remain with Starbucks after they have completed their degree, which would normally cost around $10,000 (£6,000) per year.
A number of economists have blamed mounting student debt in the US as a major factor in the US economy’s sluggish growth, as young people are forced to put off buying cars or houses until they can bring their debt under control, which can be a number of years after graduation.
