Walmart employs nearly 1.6M in the US, and 2.3M total worldwide, so what decisions they make about education costs for workers and certification gateways, has a large impact. Much of this learning is online and presumably focuses on the skills and capabilities that Walmart wants in its workforce.
Walmart is not alone in this, Amazon has a program called Amazon Career Choice. No doubt there are many more partnerships between employers and educational institutions, and it seems that’s a trend. Employers likely gain some control over the educational policy at colleges they partner with, with the schools getting additional cash flow/ student tuitions.
It’s also possible that employers might wade into education with their own facilities, especially as it can be done online to a great extent. Scaling up to a national or even international learning opportunity would bring costs down to where a regional or more local educational institution might not be able to “compete”.
The potential for moving US educational institutions in directions they have previously ignored or resisted seems great in the near term, and greater in the long term.
This would have the benefits of reduced costs for a college diploma. Employer-run educational institutions might also find HS programs suitable for inclusion as well. Of course not every change in how the US learns is going to be without drawbacks.
Countries structured as Democracies need critical thinking expertise in their citizenry, as well as some wisdom derived from the liberal arts to fully empower individual’s participation in communities. (Exactly how much of that is needed, and where it should come from is beyond the scope of this post)
Walmart will pay college tuition costs for employees