Most Organizations Offer Education Assistance to Employees

A recent survey, Education Assistance Plans, conducted by the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans, reveals trends in organizations' education assistance policies.

Key findings of the survey. According to the IFEBP survey, 94% of organizations offer some type of formal or informal education assistance plan with 88% having a formal policy and 6% having an informal policy.

Of those who offer an education assistance plan:

• 74% have less than 15% of their employees participating.
• 99% of respondents make education assistance benefits available to full-time salaried employees, 86% offer benefits to full-time hourly employees, 37% offer benefits to part-time salaried employees, 33% offer benefits to part-time hourly employees.
• 93% offer education assistance to cover undergraduate-level and graduate-level course work, 69% cover online and distance-learning courses, 56% cover vocational and technical course work.
• 100% pay tuition expenses, 64% pay for books, 63% pay for fees, 21% cover supplies.
• 73% of organizations reimburse expenses based on completion of the course, 69% reimburse based on the grade received.
• 57% do not require that employees pay back all or part of any monies reimbursed for education if they leave employment. The most common time period that employees must continue working for their organization to avoid having to pay back any monies is one year.

The survey collected information from 226 U.S. and Canadian multiemployer trust funds, corporations, public employers and professional service firms. The results include 62 valuable education assistance and tuition reimbursement policy sample policies and forms. SOURCE: www.ifebp.org

Reprinted with permission. © CCH

According to an International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans survey, 94 percent of organizations offer some type of formal or informal education assistance plan with 88 percent having a formal policy and 6 percent having an informal policy.