Companies have different tuition refund policies with various limits and exclusions. Employees must ensure courses are approved and complete them before reimbursement. Companies may require a defined period of employment and related courses. Some have partnerships with colleges. Employees should review policies and request assistance or a policy if not available.
Many companies offer some form of tuition refund policy. Each of these policies can be different, have multiple total payment limits, and have many different exclusions or ground rules. In most cases, employees should be familiar with company policy so they don’t accidentally take courses the company won’t pay for.
A feature of a tuition refund policy at many organizations is that companies do not pay if courses are not approved. An employee must ensure that he obtains a passing grade before enrolling in a course. Generally, employers pay upon completion of the course and the employee can prove with a transcript that they have passed one or more classes. This means that a person’s first lessons will need to be paid out of pocket, although with later reimbursements, lessons taken may not require the employee to pay money upfront. However, there may be total limitations on the refund available, and companies will often state this aspect of their tuition refund policy in advance.
Additional common features of a tuition reimbursement policy include requirements that the employee has been employed at a company for a defined period. This can vary, but many companies require that the person has been employed for at least one year. The employee may need to work full time as well, although this can vary by company. Other companies may state that employees are only eligible for reimbursement if they remain with the company for one year after the occurrence; otherwise, the money may have to be returned to the company or removed from final checks.
Often companies will strictly state in their tuition reimbursement policy that courses taken must be related to the company’s work. This does not necessarily mean that classes held must be in an employee’s current workspace. A machinist might really want to work in human resources or administration, and those classes might pass because the company employs people who specialize in those things. Indeed, coming from a manufacturing or other background can make a manager or human resources person invaluable, as they have knowledge of how other parts of the company work. There is just enough gray area here that it would be wise for people to consult with whoever administers tuition reimbursement to verify that classes taken or degrees attempted meet defined standards of “related fields”.
There are some companies that have partnerships with local colleges. This can mean that people are only eligible for tuition reimbursement if they attend a partnership college. Finding out if these tuition refund policy restrictions exist is usually fairly easy by asking human resources.
The best way to determine exactly what help is available is to look carefully at a tuition refund policy and ask about details that aren’t already clear. There can be a lot of variation, so discussing common features, unless it forms the basis for comparing two companies, may not be very helpful. Another thing employees might consider if a company doesn’t have such a policy is to ask for one or simply ask for one-on-one assistance. Strong arguments can be made that this job benefit is valuable to a company as it promotes company loyalty, results in a better trained workforce, and allows for promotion from within.
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