Starbucks Is Going to Pay for All Its Employees to Go to College

This is a bold new move

Well, Starbucks just stepped up to the plate big-time.

The Seattle-based coffee giant announced today that it will allow every single employee to attend four years of college and graduate completely debt-free. In other words, the company is promising to shell out a huge chunk of change on tuition (to the tune of $250 million!).

This isn't the first move that Starbucks has made towards providing education opportunities for workers, but it's certainly the most dramatic.

The details of the program are pretty simple: All (eligible) full- or part-time Starbucks employees can apply for and attend Arizona State University's online degree program completely on the company's dime. (Of course, it's worth noting that as part of the partnership ASU is going to be offering up a big discount on tuition.) Starbucks originally offered tuition reimbursement for college juniors and seniors, but today's announcement blows the original program out of the water.

According to a spokesperson, Starbucks hopes to help at least 25,000 people graduate by 2025. Employees will be required to stay working for the coffee chain while they're going to school, so whether the program can have as much success as predicted remains to be seen. After all, balancing college and a career is no cakewalk.

Either way, here's hoping that a few more big businesses decide to jump on the bandwagon.