Fiat Chrysler expands free college degree program

In May, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) made news by announcing it would offer all employees free tuition at Strayer University.

“Families are often faced with tough choices about how to pay for college”, Al Gardner, head of dealer network development with FCA U.S., said in the statement.

The families of about 118,000 employees will be eligible.

But under this partnership with the school, part-time and full-time employees who have worked at a dealership for 30 days can enroll in an associate, bachelor’s, or master’s degree program in 40 degree categories – and now, so can their families.

The automaker calls the program the first of its kind.

Ferrari, which started trading on the NY Stock Exchange in October, said the move was part of its planned separation from parent company Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV. Almost 400 employees are enrolled and actively taking classes in the program. Reps have not revealed the size of these fees. Strayer University is a postsecondary institution with a more than 120-year history educating working adult students online and at campus locations across the country.

The goals of the program, according to Fox, are to reward employees who have helped the company achieve more than five years of monthly, year-over-year sales gains; attract new talent, while improving the skills of existing employees; and significantly increase employee retention. The difference is that Starbucks program, which offers full- and part-time employees full tuition coverage through Arizona State University’s online degree program, requires employees to front the cost of their courses and Starbucks reimburses them at the end of each semester.

“It’s a battle to put kids through college”, John Fox, director of dealer training told Fortune. A bachelor’s degree at Strayer, a for-profit college in Virginia, costs about $42,000.

“The results have been way better than we thought”, said Gardner.

Fiat Chrysler launched the program this spring to about 350 dealers in the Southeast. Officials previously said about a third of those eligible to participate have signed on.

Dye, 55, owns Daytona Dodge-Chrysler-Jeep-Ram, as well as a Fiat store and an off-site Ram showroom in the area. The dealership pays the college a fee on behalf of the employee to get them registered.

Graduation rates at Strayer vary widely by degree, McDonnell said.