Monday, Apr. 6 Starbucks announced that the company would pay for employee’s entire tuition for Arizona State University’s online classes. The company would pay for the first four years, giving an employee the chance to obtain their bachelor’s degree.

Full and part time Starbucks employees can apply for the program if they choose too. Workers who do not already have a college degree can also apply. Licensed store employees (employees who work at a Starbucks inside grocery stores) can not apply for the program.

Employees that qualify for the program will receive a scholarship from ASU college that will help pay for 42 percent of each of the courses that an employee takes.Then, Starbucks will jump in and pay for the other 58 percent of their tuition. If an employee leaves the business while attending the school, they will have to pay for the rest of college themselves.

When the employee is done attending college they can then leave the company and look for a different job.Starbucks says the program is to help their staff and underprivileged workers afford an education they can use to go further in their life and be successful. More that 70 percent of the employees working at Starbucks do not have a bachelor’s degree.

There are already 2,000 Starbucks employees that are taking the online courses at ASU college. In the upcoming years, Starbucks hopes to spend 250 million dollars to help 25,000 employees be able to earn their college education. Starbucks had originally been paying for two years of college, but has recently decided to go ahead and pay for all four years of college.

“I would work at Starbucks if they paid for my college,” freshman Jenna Tomkinson said. “I think that it is actually really good that they actually care enough to like help people out with their colleges.”