By Tracy F. Harrisassistant Managing Editor
What can Brown do for you? Students often respond to the UPS slogan with, “Give me a good paying part-time job with benefits and tuition reimbursement that works around my class schedule.”
UPS does all that and more, depending on which of two programs, Earn and Learn or the Metropolitan College, students get into.
The Earn and Learn program is open to any part-time employee at UPS. Students who are part-time employees for UPS are eligible for $3,000 in tuition reimbursement per year as well as $2,000 in forgivable loans.
According to the UPS Web site, the Earn and Learn program has helped more than 30,000 students go to college and paid out more than $47 million in assistance.
UPS part-time employees are also eligible for a full range of benefits, including medical, dental and vision, 401(k), and paid vacations and holidays.
As if that weren’t enough of an incentive, the Metropolitan College program has even more perks.
The MC is a cooperative program between UPS, the Commonwealth of Kentucky, the University of Louisville, Jefferson Community College and the Jefferson Technical College. To enroll in the MC, students must be accepted to the school of their choice.
Students who enroll in the MC work the night shift, generally from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m.
“It works well with students’ schedules,” said Mark Giuffre, Public Relations Manager for UPS. “Many of them are up that late anyway.”
So the hours fit, but why stay up all night? Because students in the MC have their tuition paid for. That’s right: free school. Giuffre said that about half of UPS’s part-time positions are filled by students, including those in the MC. That’s about 3,500 positions — 2,200 of which are filled by MC students.
UPS covers half the tuition and the state the rest. MC students also receive a $65-per-class reimbursement for books, according to Lisa Hauge, the student development counselor for the MC at U of L.
Add to that the benefits and bonuses. Speed School student via the MC and five-year UPS employee Larry Pietrasiewicz said he came to U of L from Pennsylvania because of the program.
His benefits are the same as any other part-time employee’s; his co-pay is a mere $10, he said. The bonuses rank pretty high on his list of pros, too.
The Academic Bonus Program includes bonuses for three separate accomplishments: semester completion, academic milestones and graduation.
Any MC student who completes at least six credit hours a semester is eligible for a semester completion bonus. Students who earn six hours without any withdrawals, incompletes or failures receive a $500 bonus. Those who earn their six hours but have a W, I or F still receive $350.
Academic milestone bonuses occur when a student reaches the 30-, 60- and 90-credit hour markers. Those markers mean a $600 bonus each time.
The graduation bonus is $400 for an associate’s degree, $1,000 for a bachelor’s with an associate’s and $1,400 for a bachelor’s without an associate’s.
The MC, Pietrasiewicz said, also hosts numerous events for student employees. Before or after shifts, the MC sponsors group activities like basketball or bowling. It’s a good opportunity for students at all three schools involved in the MC to get together.
Pietrasiewicz said the major downfall is, of course, the late nights.
“It’s tough,” he said, “but you can’t go wrong. It’s just a matter of getting used to it.”
He said he doesn’t get much sleep, since he gets off work at 4 a.m. or later and has Speed classes as early as 8 a.m. “You have to decide to stay up or go home and take a nap for a couple of hours,” he said.
But, he said, UPS is “a really good company.”
UPS feels the same about its student employees, Giuffre said. “They’re a stable, loyal workforce.”
He also said the state’s contribution means an educated workforce is being created, and the students learn “great work ethics” by working for the company.
On UPS’s end, the part-time students work out “very well.”
They’re hard workers, Giuffre said, and the fact that UPS is helping pay for their college education makes the students even more loyal.
“They really are great programs,” Giuffre said, pointing out that it gives many first time students their only opportunity to go to college.
Also, he said, students leave UPS with a sense of pride — they can go into another job and say they held down a part-time job for four or five years working nights, and earned their degree at the same time.
Each semester, students in the MC sign a contract with UPS to pass their classes and work in exchange for tuition, book reimbursement and bonuses.
There are 600 U of L students enrolled in the MC, Hauge said. Those students all had to meet minimum requirements for acceptance into U of L — the MC isn’t an easy way in. Once enrolled, students are eligible to take any classes the university offers.
Hauge said students are, however, encouraged to take classes later in the day.
UPS also announced in February that Louisville will be the home of the new freight facility, an operation that will bring an additional 720 jobs to the city. Giuffre said 600 of those will be part-time positions similar to those in the current operation, only, instead of standard packages, there will be more heavy cargo — pallets, machinery and other materials that will often be moved via forklifts.
Giuffre and Hiring Manager Pat Murphy both said they’re unsure if those jobs will become part of the MC. It’s possible, they said, but the logistics haven’t been hammered out yet. However, all the part-time positions will be available to students who can then participate in the Earn and Learn program.
For more information, contact http://www.metro-college.com or http://www.upsjobs.com.
