Many companies and corporations today provide benefits to their employees so they can attract, hire and keep the best-qualified people. Benefits such as dental and medical insurance and pension plans do a lot to make working for a company and remaining a long time loyal employee a winning proposition for its workforce.

While providing benefits for the worker many companies are interested in ways to provide both benefit to the employees and to the company its self. One of the many benefits that more and more companies offer today that help their employees and bring benefit to the company as well, are various Tuition Reimbursement and Employee Waiver Programs for employees who are attending college. Receiving a college education certainly is a great “perk” for a worker and a college-educated employee, in most cases, brings greater value to the job.

Company sponsored education programs pay various annual amounts depending on an employee’s time on the job and the relevancy of the program or studies to the employee’s job description. Check with your HR department for details on available tuition reimbursement benefits.

Another benefit to the employee is the tax exemption that they can receive as a student. Check with your HR department and your accountant to learn more about tax benefits.

In order to qualify for tuition reimbursement programs you may have to meet certain reachable criteria. For example, you may have to agree to remain on the job for a certain amount of time after obtaining your degree. You might also be required to maintain your GPA (grade point average) at a certain level. You may have to show proof of classes being taken. And some employers may also require you to finish the program in a certain period of time.

While there are usually requirements an employee must meet to receive free college (tuition reimbursement) from their employer, whatever the requirements, they are more times than not, very attainable and well worth the effort.

The benefits of obtaining a higher education will follow you long after you move on to a different job. In cases where employees choose to stay and climb the corporate ladder, they are helping the company as well themselves. Investigating your employer’s details and requirements for educational tuition reimbursements beforehand, will help you to decide if your company’s tuition reimbursement plan is right for you.

Consider the following. A very well known dental insurance company provides the best dental insurance to its employees. This pleases both the employee and the care providers and lends credibility to the insurance when each and every employee from building maintenance to the President of the company can say to the public at large, “I have this insurance and it is great.”

[Side bar: It was disturbing to me when I asked a hospital employee about the service at her hospital. Her reply to me was, “I really can’t say, my insurance doesn’t cover me to go here.” End of Sidebar]

Many automobile dealerships provide cars for certain valued employees to drive. This of course makes the employee very happy but it also helps the company’s image, when people see the employee driving the car the company sells instead of a competitor’s model.

Another example is Airlines providing free air transportation to its employees. This perk not only makes employees and their families extremely happy it helps fill airline seats with happy passengers.

What if the company you work for is a school?

In the same vein of the examples above many if not all private and career focused colleges provide free education to their staff. What a great win/win/win situation for all three; the employee, the college and the students all benefit. The employee gets a free education in a certificate or degree program. The school gets a loyal employee and student and other students see workers at the school attending the college where they work, “this must be a very nice college, even the employees attend here.”
In light of the above, next, we will discuss how you can get a free college education simply by getting a job at your local private, career based college.

Question: Do you put the cart before the horse or the horse before the cart?

Answer: In some instances you must put the cart before the horse. Read on to find out why.