Image: Amazon and The Noun Project
The cost of free college

Good morning! This Monday, Amazon reminds us that nothing in life is free, Apple employees have to get more COVID-19 tests, Twitch sues the "hate raiders," and Google Companions might make hybrid work less painful.
Earlier this month, Amazon announced it will pay "full college tuition" for its front-line employees and expand its education reimbursement benefits to include bachelor's degrees. The company will also grant hourly workers access to all of its new Amazon Career Choice programs after three months of employment.
Education benefits can help attract workers in an unusually tight labor market. And an (Amazon-sponsored) Gallup poll found that upskilling is now one of the most important benefits for workers across the board, especially for younger workers.
But "free college" is not what it seems. Education researchers told Protocol that there is little evidence these programs have any power to create real economic and social change.
The highest-paid and most-educated workers tend to take advantage of these programs more than everyone else because they have the time and flexibility to make it happen, according to almost all of the research on upskilling.
Workers have shown rapidly increasing interest in enrolling in the current Career Choice options over the last year, Amazon said. And it's not just Amazon investing heavily here; Guild Education, the most well-known upskilling startup, hit a valuation of $3.7 billion this summer in its most recent fundraising round. Across the board, from Chipotle to Walmart and now to Amazon, companies are looking to offer these benefits. But do the benefits actually benefit the employees? Researchers are pretty skeptical.
— Anna Kramer (email | twitter)
A version of this story also appeared on Protocol.com. Read it here.
The future of retail is digital, experiential – and happening now in China. U.S. businesses are going digital and using Alibaba to create immersive experiences to sell to the 900 million Chinese consumers on Alibaba's ecommerce platforms.
Facebook's Nick Clegg took issue with The Facebook Files:
Tesla's use of the phrase Full Self-Driving is "misleading and irresponsible," new NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy said:
On Protocol | Enterprise: GitHub's Erica Brescia thinks hybrid work is the future:
.NEXT begins today. The four-day conference is all about cloud computing, and speakers include former White House CIO Theresa Payton, Zoom CIO Harry Moseley and, err, John Taylor from Duran Duran.
London Tech Week also starts today. This year's conference will cover issues like the digital divide and tackling the pandemic.
The Black Is Tech Conference also starts today. The weeklong event will take place virtually, and includes sessions on topics such as diversity in cybersecurity and how content design can be used as a tool for advocacy.
CIO's Future of Work Summit begins tomorrow. There are sessions with execs from companies, like VMware, DocuSign, Darktrace and Samsung.
Microsoft is hosting a special online event Wednesday. The company is expected to talk about devices and Windows 11.
Google rolled out a few tools earlier this month, including Workspace dashboards for project collaboration and the ability to call through Meet on both a phone and desktop. But in November, it's rolling out Companion mode, which will let people who are working from home more easily connect to conference room meetings.
In Companion mode, anyone can access Meet features like screen sharing, live captions and more. It also gives people who are at the office their own little video squares, so nobody working from home feels left out. Now if only free snacks were available at home, too.
This year, China will become the first country where ecommerce sales will outpace brick-and-mortar transactions. U.S. businesses are using Alibaba's platforms to sell to 900 million digitally savvy consumers in China and untap new opportunities for long-term growth.
Thoughts, questions, tips? Send them to sourcecode@protocol.com, or our tips line, tips@protocol.com. Enjoy your day, see you tomorrow.
To give you the best possible experience, this site uses cookies. If you continue browsing. you accept our use of cookies. You can review our privacy policy to find out more about the cookies we use.