[ad_1]
Walmart has a new target for talent in a tight labor market: high school students.
The country's largest private employer, which employs 1.5 million people in the United States, announced Tuesday its intention to extend to high school students an already announced advantage in higher education, in the United States. Hoping to send them to universities to pursue them amazing loan debt.
Here's what high school students will now have access to, according to Walmart:
- Jobs at Walmart with scheduling options for more flexibility;
- Free ACT and SAT preparation courses;
- Up to seven hours of free university credit as part of Walmart's "Better Life at the University" program; and
- A university degree without debt through "Live Better U" (at the end of high school) in three disciplines of six nonprofit universities.
Walmart said that less than 25,000 of its workers today are high school students, representing a "very small percentage" of its total workforce. This is particularly small compared to other companies in the sector, as it can often be difficult to cope with busy schedules for students, "said Julie Murphy, executive vice president of Walmart's US division, when from a call to the media.
But "we see this as a pipeline that we can exploit, but we are not exploiting it today," she said.
The announcement comes about a year after Walmart began subsidizing the cost of higher education for its employees who have not yet obtained a university degree, thus creating "Live Better U". To this end, it has partnered with Guild Education, a tuition reimbursement and training platform that helps large employers expand the benefits of education, including tuition reimbursement. to the workers. Walmart workers accepted into this program are required to pay only one dollar a day, 365 days a year, for their education, as long as they are enrolled. Walmart covers the rest of the tab.
On Tuesday, one day before the start of its controversial annual shareholder meeting in Bentonville, Arkansas, Walmart also announced plans to create new scholarships for people who have not yet completed their university studies – high school students or others. According to the report, no less than 5,000 workers per year will be eligible for prizes worth $ 1,500 each.
It also adds three additional universities to the program: Southern New Hampshire University, Purdue University Global and Wilmington University, which will join the University of Florida, Brandman University and Bellevue University to become eligible locations for Walmart workers.
Walmart has also added 14 new diplomas and technology certificates to its workers in areas such as computer science, cybersecurity and computer technology, as well as a certificate for Java programming. When this program was launched in 2018, workers had to choose to obtain an associate degree or a bachelor's degree in business management or supply chain.
The goal of all this is that workers gain the skills that Walmart knows they will need in the future, according to Drew Holler, senior vice president of Associate Experience at Walmart at United States. as registered employees are more engaged in their work.
A year ago, Walmart had stated that it expected no less than 68,000 of its employees could enroll in the new college program within four to five years. About 7,500 people have registered to date.
"We deliberately progressed slowly," said Murphy, with program enrollments. "We expect it to accelerate. [And] we think the [new] the degrees we propose will be decisive … when we think about the future. "
At the same time, Walmart is not the only employer struggling to attract and retain the best talent, with the unemployment rate hovering near the lowest in the United States.
The CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, in his April annual letter to shareholders, challenged other retailers, without specifying which, to match their compensation and benefits. Walmart's minimum wage of $ 11 / hour, set in January 2018, is still lower than Amazon's, which was raised to $ 15 in November. "Do it! Better yet, go to $ 16," said Bezos.
Walmart stated that its average hourly earnings including benefits is over $ 17.50.
The 2020 Democratic presidential candidate and Senator Bernie Sanders are expected to attend the Walmart shareholders' meeting later in the week. He is expected to put pressure on the company so that it raises wages and offers paid workers to Walmart's board. For years, he has been targeting the largest retailer in the world, even going as far as to introduce a bill in 2018 aimed at pushing the company to increase its wages.
"I'm going to Bentonville, Arkansas, to tell Walton's family of Walmart, America's richest family: Get out of welfare. Pay a decent wage to your workers! Sanders tweeted last week.
[ad_2]
Source link