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What if you could get college credit for working at Walmart or McDonald's? Both companies are testing the fit between real-life learning and higher education. NPR's Alina Selyukh reports.
ALINA SELYUKH, BYLINE: One semester, something unusual happened to Bonnie Boop.
BONNIE BOOP: I always wanted to go back to college.
SELYUKH: And she did in her late 40s, she says mainly out of principle - to get that bachelor's, on top of two associate degrees she'd gotten years before.
BOOP: Bachelor's degrees tend to open more doors. My kids used to say, oh, it's fine - you were in college for four years, because you have two associates degrees, and I was like, it's not the same (laughter).
SELYUKH: She got help paying for school from Walmart, where she worked stocking health and beauty aisles. When Boop was promoted to supervise others, she was required to get training at the Walmart Academy - brief, intensive courses on leadership and workforce planning. Then, one day, she met with her college adviser.
BOOP: I said, well, I have a business operations class coming up. I see here it says I've already taken it, but I didn't. And she said, yes, you got credit from a Walmart Academy. I said, what? Wow. It was great.
SELYUKH: Getting college credit for skills you've learned at work - some schools have long done this for people in the military, also for corporate training at companies like Google, IBM or Microsoft in things like data science or cybersecurity. For work in stores and restaurants, the idea is very new. Some of the largest employers are now testing it - how colleges might give retail and fast food workers credit for what they do on the job, getting that student closer to a degree.
AMBER GARRISON DUNCAN: That's a huge motivator.
SELYUKH: Amber Garrison Duncan is at the nonprofit Competency-Based Education Network. It connects employers and higher education institutions.
GARRISON DUNCAN: Especially for adults in particular, adults who are working at Walmart who feel like they weren't college material, what we are able to go and do is say, you are, and you're doing college-level work already. We're going to give you credit for this, so why don't you keep going and earn your degree?
SELYUKH: It's called credit for prior learning. Walmart says partner universities now give credit for dozens of company courses, like Bonnie Boop's, or in things like auto care, supply chain or digital operations. McDonald's has a pilot with community colleges to figure out how to convert, for example, certificates in safe food handling or even general customer service skills toward degrees in hospitality or insurance. The car-service chain Jiffy Lube has its own college credit program.
BRIANNE MCDONOUGH: It's a big change for higher ed.
SELYUKH: Brianne McDonough is with the workforce development nonprofit Jobs for the Future.
MCDONOUGH: This definitely is a process that disrupts what traditional higher ed is used to, in terms of credit for sitting in a class and doing assignments.
SELYUKH: Big picture, the idea is to open higher education to more people, with less college debt and less time spent juggling work and study, which discourages many adults, hopefully followed by better-paying, more secure careers. For companies, paying for college is a way to attract workers and keep them longer. Saving money on recruitment and retraining and getting credit for existing skills means companies have to pay for fewer classes. Here's Garrison Duncan.
GARRISON DUNCAN: Why would I pay for learning that someone already did?
SELYUKH: Long term, some executives paint a dramatic transformation of hiring, a future where your resumes are really all about your skills - not diplomas or degrees, but, like, a passport that says you've proven to excel in, say, managing a team or data analytics. That assessment of skills would be the thing that matters. We don't live in that world, though, so getting work skills to count toward a college degree is a baby step. Even that is complex. For now, it's mostly about work experiences that are structured, standardized, measurable, like certificates or classroom trainings. And then there's a more basic challenge to all of this.
GARRISON DUNCAN: The bulk of learners don't know this is even an option for them.
SELYUKH: Most workers simply don't even know about college programs through work. They struggle to navigate application bureaucracies. They get little scheduling leeway to balance school and work hours. Ask Bonnie Boop how she did it.
BOOP: Stay up a lot of times after I worked.
SELYUKH: She studied online at Southern New Hampshire University.
BOOP: Southern New Hampshire has strict deadlines for your projects, and it was a rush sometimes to get them in when you're working.
SELYUKH: Credit for Walmart Academy training saved her two semesters, Boop says. She graduated last year, a Bachelor of Science in business administration. Her portrait floated across the screen at the virtual ceremony. She did buy a cap and gown to pose for pictures. At her Walmart store in Alabama, she was promoted to people lead, overseeing more than 200 workers, already thinking about a master's degree.
Alina Selyukh, NPR News.
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