Amazon’s Career Choice program gives Amazon employees access to education at eight participating CUNY schools, with tuition and fees covered. The partnership between CUNY and Amazon began in January.

The collaboration is part of CUNY Career Success Initiativewhich aims to help students and graduates advance their careers through skills-building programs that prepare them for internships and employment opportunities.

“This important partnership is a powerful example of how the private sector can partner with the City University of New York to advance worker education, promote economic mobility, and help rebuild the post-pandemic economy of New York City at the same time”, CUNY Chancellor Félix Matos Rodríguez noted. “We thank Amazon for its commitment to higher education for its employees and look forward to working with them as we expand CUNY’s role as one of the nation’s leading drivers of economic opportunity.”

The eight participating colleges are Bronx Community College, Borough of Manhattan Community College, City College, College of Staten Island, CUNY School of Professional Studies, Kingsborough Community College, LaGuardia Community College and Queens College. Each college is close to Amazon construction sites.

Career choice is part of Improving Amazon Skills commitment, which includes a $1.2 billion investment to provide free education and job training opportunities to more than 300,000 Amazon employees across the United States by 2025.

the program began in 2012 and more than 50,000 Amazon employees worldwide have participated and received training in high-demand occupations such as medical assistants, aircraft mechanics, commercial truck drivers and more.

In January, the program was expanded to the United States to pay full tuition for employees of various educational partners, including CUNY. This is Amazon’s 180th collaboration with an education provider, but the first in New York State, according to Diverse education.

The program is open to hourly Amazon employees who have been employed for 90 days. They will have access to annual training funds as long as they remain with the company.