Teen Jobs with Tuition Programs

I often speak about our family’s move across the country to access a free tuition program through my husband’s employer, but these kinds of benefits are sometimes available to our teens too.  Your teen’s part-time job in high school or college can have big rewards.

Tuition programs vary dramatically, there really isn’t a “one size fits all” way they work- but to give you a very simple explanation, there are companies that will pay for your teen’s tuition (full or part) while they work as employees.  This is different from a scholarship, which is often a one time gift and the scholarship provider doesn’t expect anything in return.

Tuition programs usually require a relationship between the employee and employer.

Tuition programs may require working a specific number of hours per week, a commitment to work after the tuition payment is made, etc., but make no mistake, this is REAL MONEY that can help your family obtain a debt-free college degree.  My husband’s bachelor’s degree and master’s degree were funded by his employer (two different ones) and my oldest son’s current employer is paying his tuition.

Our North Carolina Homeschooling for College Credit moderator shared the announcement about McDonald’s yesterday.  They’ve expanded their tuition program, so this is a great opportunity to put these kinds of benefits in one place for you to access.  Most teens will work part-time during high school, and there are dozens of companies that will allow your teen to continue working part-time during college – all while receiving tuition benefits.

You may remember the study from Boston University last year that followed the GPA of students who worked a shift or two per week during college.  They had higher GPAs across the board.  Of course, working too much correlated with lower GPAs, so we’re talking about part-time jobs that fit in and around school work – not a job that squeezes it out.

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Reducing college costs by as much as possible is a bit of a hobby of mine!  If your goal is to reduce your teen’s student loan debt to ZERO, make time to investigate my previous posts:

100 Employer / Employee Scholarships

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Thanks to Clarks.com posting this great fast-food summary:

Taco Bell

Just like Chipotle, Taco Bell has teamed up with Guild Education for certain education benefits.

Employees get tuition, books and fees reimbursed up to the IRS limit of $5,250 per calendar year. There’s also the opportunity to earn college credit for on-the-job training.

McDonald’s

Thanks to the corporate tax savings under the new tax law, McDonald’s says it’s committed to increasing college tuition benefits for employees to the tune of $150 million over five years.

Eligible employees receive upto $2,500/year, managers, meanwhile, will have access to $3,000.  There are no lifetime caps on this perk, and the super-sized benefit takes effect May 1, 2018 and will be retroactive to January 1, 2018.

Employees will be required to be with McDonald’s for 90 days before being allowed to take advantage of this benefit.  Employees who want tuition assistance will only need to put in 15 hours minimum a week instead of the previous requirement for 20 hours a week.