Walmart has committed to investing $1 billion in career-driven training and development by 2026, while Walmart.org* has committed to investing $1 billion in career-driven training and development by 2026, while Walmart.org* We have made over $140 million in philanthropic investments over five years. We share a goal. It’s about creating a world where all learning matters.
That way, people like Reese are evaluated on all the skills they have, not just whether they have a college degree. Gaining skills, experience and hard work are all valued, which means more opportunities for everyone.
By combining our business and philanthropy, we help create skills-based systems and employment practices that help people find more career opportunities and enable employers to value all the skills they have. I am. This includes formal education, work experience, short-term qualifications, volunteer work, military service, and other life experiences.
This starts with helping Walmart employees discover new opportunities. People come to Walmart for jobs and stay for careers. We are constantly creating paths to in-demand roles within our company. At the same time, the Walmart.org team is working to prepare this approach across other employers, educators, policy makers, and workforce systems.
Ultimately, Walmart believes the U.S. workforce system needs to transition to one that recognizes and understands skills the same way we recognize and understand college degrees. This gives talented, skilled workers without degrees the same benefits as those with degrees. Harvard’s review of his business calls this approach the New Collar Workforce.
We believe in leading by example. Here are five ways he puts this into practice both inside and outside the company.
1. Offer shorter format certificates that focus on new skills
Employees can start working toward a college degree from their first day on the job, with Walmart paying for it. But over the past two years, we’ve intentionally made changes to our Live Better U education benefits to provide shorter training programs that provide employees with the skills they need to quickly move into in-demand jobs at Walmart and other industries. We have provided a certificate of format.
Through our partnership with the Guild, we now offer approximately 25 short-form certificates, up from 5 in 2020. Employees can earn certificates in data analytics, cybersecurity, supply chain management, business economics, and more, to name a few. We want people to stay with us and grow with us, so we make it easy to advance to roles with more responsibility and higher salaries.
2. Rewrite job descriptions to account for skills.
We have always focused on eliminating unnecessary barriers for our employees to advance their careers. For example, 75% of his salary managers for stores, clubs, and supply chain facilities in the United States started in hourly roles at Walmart. This is a great example of our culture of promoting from within. You didn’t need a degree to fill these roles, which earned you about $113,000 a year.
We’re extending that thinking, evolving existing jobs, creating new ones, and considering the skills businesses will need in the future. We are rewriting job descriptions for campus (headquarters) jobs to consider the skills a person has in addition to the degree they hold. This creates a binary choice for applicants. To qualify for the job, you must have the necessary skills for the job, either through a relevant university degree or through past experience or other forms of learning.
Both options are important. While a degree should be part of the equation, and even required in some cases, there are many roles that don’t require a degree at all, including in corporate headquarters. For example, Walmart is making philanthropic grants available to benefit the work of the Markle Foundation, which creates tools to help employers, including Walmart, adopt these practices.
Veterans like Reese are prime examples of how past experience can lead to future job opportunities. The Walmart.org team works with Hire Heroes USA and The Manufacturing Institute to support veterans.