Building a Pathway to Success for Amazon Associates

Main Steps on How to Participate in Amazon Career Choice Program:

• Make sure you are eligible to participate in Amazon Career Choice Program. (see below)
• Get Admitted to CSUEB and enroll in an eligible program. Follow this Link. 
• Submit your Payment Request through Amazon’s Career Choice Portal. The first term that a student participates in the program, they will need to submit a CSUEB-Amazon FERPA form to authorize Cal State East Bay to approve payment for courses.
• Follow detailed Instructions on How to Use Amazon’s Career Choice Portal (see below)

To be eligible to participate in Amazon Career Choice Program, an associate must: 

• Have worked at Amazon for at least 90 days 
• The educational program start date is after the associate becomes eligible to participate in the program.
• Students must be taking classes toward an undergraduate degree program at Cal State East Bay. Classes for graduate degrees, credential or certificate programs cannot be approved by Cal State East Bay.

Associates need to follow the steps below in Amazon’s Career Choice Portal: 

1. Explore available and approved school partners in the School Directory Tool. 
2. Apply directly to the school of liking.
3. After acceptance, enroll in courses at the scchool, and then go back to Career Choice Portal and submit a payment request.
   1. Identify the school, academic program, and the start date in the payment request. 
   2. Students will also need to submit a CSUEB-Amazon FERPA form to authorize Cal State East Bay to approve payment for courses.
4. Once CSUEB receives the payment request, the school confirms the student is enrolled, and then approves the payment request. 
   1. A payment request can be submitted up to 90 days prior to the first day of semester. 
   2. Payment Requests must be approved by the school within 45 days of when the course/courses start
   3. Payment Requests expire after 120 days from the course start date if the school does not approve them.

What are the policies regarding 3rd party sponsorship: 

• Student Financial Services (SFS) will defer payment for sponsored students and will bill an external agency for registration fees, non-resident tuition, and course fees. SFS has the right to refuse an authorization to bill an agency or deferment of fee payment for a student pending receipt of payment from a third party sponsor, due to previous refusal to pay, extended collection efforts, or other reasons.
• Sponsored students must submit an authorization to bill, letter of sponsorship, purchase order, etc. to Student Financial Services each term . For  the Amazon Career Choice program, students must enter course information in the Career Choice portal prior to the start of classes for each term Failure to submit authorization by the deadline may result in disenrollment for non-payment or the student owing tuition fees for the term. If a late fee is added, it cannot be billed to the agency, but must be paid by the student.

How can an associate request a refund from the school?

• They need to navigate to the Homepage of their Amazon Choice portal -> Your Account -> Request a refund to start the process.

What happens if I leave Amazon?

• "Amazon Associates will lose their access to the Career Choice benefit if they are terminated voluntarily or involuntarily. However, if an employee leaves Amazon before completing their course(s) that were previously paid for by Amazon, they are not required to pay Amazon back for their Career Choice program. Furthermore, if the employee submits a payment request before their termination for course(s) with a start date after their termination, Amazon Career Choice will still honor the payment request to allow the employee to complete the courses tied to that payment request regardless of whether they stay with Amazon for the duration of the of the program or not. NOTE - an employee can apply for a payment request up to 90 days before their course start date."

Who provides coaching and advising support to participating associates/students? 

• At Amazon, Career Choice offers employees coaching support to make informed and intentional decisions regarding their benefit. Coaching can be used for education advising and/or career services.  Employees can schedule an appointment via: https://go.kaplan.com/amazon
• At CSUEB, the SCAA (Student Center for Adademic Achievement) provides tutoring for math, statistics, the sciences, and writing, as well as other student learning services and programs. In addition, each department has its own advisors that can help students with their classes, educational path, etc. 

Does Amazon provide schedule adjustments to accomodate my school? 

• Yes. Temporary Scheduled Adjustment Request Process is a formal program identifying possible schedule solutions, including offering minor schedule adjustments to accommodate for school.