Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) (NASDAQ:AMZN) is offering to pay college tuition for over 750,000 front-line staff in the US in order to recruit and retain employees.
The online shopping giant said it will invest US$1.2bn (£870mln) in education and skills training for its workers by 2025. It will fund full college tuition, high school diplomas and English proficiency certifications.
Amazon is struggling to fill vacancies amid the boom in online shopping and is offering incentives and perks to attract workers.
The group’s UK arm recently announced that it was offering people a £1,000 bonus to work in its UK warehouses and that it would pay permanent staff at some of its UK locations a weekly bonus of £50 for being punctual.
“Amazon is now the largest job creator in the U.S., and we know that investing in free skills training for our teams can have a huge impact for hundreds of thousands of families across the country,” said Dave Clark, CEO of Worldwide Consumer at Amazon.
"This new investment builds on years of experience supporting employees in growing their careers, including some unique initiatives like building more than 110 on-site classrooms for our employees in Amazon fulfilment centers across 37 states.”
READ: Amazon UK paid £492mln in direct tax last year amid pandemic sales boom