With credit for workplace training and Walmart’s tuition-assistance program, Bonnie Boop earned an online business degree, reports NPR's Alina Selyukh. The former shelf stocker now supervises more than 200 workers.
"Some of the nation’s largest employers, including Walmart and McDonald’s, are now . . . convincing colleges to give retail and fast-food workers credit for what they learn on the job," helping them complete a work-relevant degree, writes Selyukh.
Boop took online classes through Southern New Hampshire University, which specializes in working with employers to help full-time workers earn online degrees. She'd already earned two associate degrees. After more than two years of late-night studying, she completed a bachelor of science in business administration, with a concentration in industrial organizational psychology.
"McDonald’s is working with several community colleges to build a path for converting on-the-job skills, like safe food handling or customer service, into credit toward degrees in culinary arts, hospitality or insurance," Selyukh writes. "Walmart has over a dozen short-form certificates and 25 training courses — in tech, leadership, digital operations — that translate to credit at partner universities."
The American Council on Education worked with the U.S. military to link military jobs and training to college credit. ACE's database of recommended credit now includes work experience in government, nonprofits and apprenticeships as well.
College credit for "prior learning" has focused on employer-provided classroom training, writes Selyukh. "Figuring out how to map on-the-job skills gained otherwise is the big leap."
BB may get occasionally teased about her name, but moving up to supervise 200 workers says she gets the last laugh. Good on 'er.