Dolly Parton’s theme park Dollywood announced it will pay for tuition, fees and books for all its employees who choose to “pursue further education.” The program, with funding provided by Dollywood’s parent company Herschend Enterprises, will launch on Feb. 24.
Herschend Enterprises’ pilot program, titled GROW U, will be implemented for its 11,000 employees — seasonal, part-time or full-time — across its 25 parks, including Dollywood, according to a press release. The company is offering more than 100 fully-funded diploma, degree and certificate programs, and will also provide partial funding for 150 additional programs in fields such as hospitality, engineering, human resources and art design.
Eugene Naughton, president of the Dollywood Company, said: “One of The Dollywood Foundation’s key tenets is to ‘learn more.’ We want our hosts to develop themselves through advanced learning to fulfill the foundation’s other tenets: care more, dream more, and be more.”
