News

Chipotle expands employee educational opportunities

May 2, 2017

Chipotle Mexican Grill is debuting a new custom bachelor's degree in business for its workers via a partnership with Bellevue University and Guild Education.

The degree features applied learning with theory in a hands-on approach and the curriculum was developed jointly by Chipotle and the university, according to a press release.

"This degree enables our employees to apply what they learn in the classroom to their work at Chipotle and vice versa," said Steve Ells, founder, chairman and CEO at Chipotle, in the release. "Employees will gain a solid understanding of business operations including people development, marketing, and decision making. The new degree program extends a series of education benefits we've been putting in place over the last couple of years to help better equip our employees for success at Chipotle and beyond."

Employees can schedule courses around their schedule and, when combined with internal training and credit from previous school programs, it can be completed in under two years, states the release.

"One of the best ways we can help working students succeed is to leverage their real-life experiences and skills," said Rebecca Murdock, dean of the College of Business at Bellevue University, in the release. ""With Chipotle's help, we have built a truly best in class business degree program."

The new custom degree is one of more than 30 available in Chipotle's educational assistance program in partnership with Guild Education.