Walmart to Help Associates Get College Degrees

[MNomadic]

Walmart appears to be offering degree programs that can benefit them. This benefits employees who plan to stay. Their target audience is definitely not people looking to take on a temporary job just to get a free degree, obviously. You can use them that way, but this is not a good option for most people.

I think it benefits more than just employees who want to stay. It benefits anyone who doesn't have a degree and doesn't have many other options for a degree or many other job opportunities. True, no potential employer is having wet dreams over the next candidate with a Walmart sponsored BSBA but that degree is one of the most widely applicable. Most businesses need someone with business knowledge I think.

I think they would greatly benefit from people that just want a cheap degree from them. I'm not going to generalize EVERY Walmart employee, but a lot of people who work at Walmart may not have many life aspirations or motivation to try hard. After all, worst case scenario from being fired from walmart: getting a different low paying retail job with lowish standards. But if someone wants to work at Walmart for the purpose of college benefits, they can plan long term(a year or more anyway) and presumably would take a certain level of care with their job performance. If they screw around and show up drunk or high, they lose out on significantly more than just $11/hour wages. That also gives Walmart a certain amount of implied leverage on the employees. I also think that(theoretically) someone with college aspirations applying to Walmart probably has a little bit better character and work ethics than some of the applicants they get.

Probably not a good option for most people. There are many different ways to get into a well paying career. Some involve college and some don't. But Walmart is stepping up it's pay and benefits a little which is good.

Lots of employers offer college benefits, but very few with such low qualifications and very low expectations to pay for a degree for a part time employees.