Dive Brief:
- Fiat Chrysler Automobiles is expanding its partnership with Strayer University in the Degrees@Work program — which offers more than 100,000 dealership employees access to free tuition programs — to include all dealership employees, along with their spouses and children.
- Company leaders announced Monday that all Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, Ram Truck, and FIAT dealerships can participate, building on the more than 100 dealers that launched the program in the Southeast this past spring.
- The Degrees@Work program allows employees and their immediate families to get associate, bachelor’s, and master’s degrees through Strayer, which has campuses nationwide as well as online programs.
Dive Insight:
Education benefits for employees offer companies a way to develop internal talent and reduce turnover — actions that have direct impacts on revenues. Generally, these programs come and go based on the strength of the economy. Weak economies don’t inspire companies to pay for such perks, as they are in less competition for workers. Strayer University CEO Karl McDonnell expects, however, that the Strayer@Work program will help buck that trend.
McDonnell said the reduced turnover alone will increase productivity and profits enough to compel employers to keep the programs, weak economy or not. With Chrysler, Strayer has rebuilt a degree program, including course materials that relate to the company to give students tailored knowledge to bring back to the workplace. This, too, could boost FCA’s performance enough to be worth the cost of the program. Of course, only time will tell.
