Starbucks has plans to roll out a brand new program which will allow U.S. employees to work towards earning an online degree at Arizona State University.

The coffee giant plans on partnering with the university to offer around 135,000 employees the option of obtaining a degree at a discounted rate.

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To qualify, employees must work at the coffee chain a minimum of 20 hours a week. Starbucks released a statement saying that once employees receive their degree, they are not required to continue working at Starbucks nor do they have to limit their degree options to those related to their work at the coffee chain.

It remains unclear how many employees will sign up to take part in the program, nor how much of their tuition costs will be covered by Starbucks. It is expected that the program will boost enrollment in Arizona State University's online program although the coffee behemoth refused to disclose the details of its financial agreement with the school.

The cost for online enrollment stands at around $10,000 per year and currently, Arizona State University's online program only has around 10,000 enrolled students.

The new program will phase out Starbuck's existing educational program which was set up in 2011 and gives employees $1,000 per year for tuition and textbook costs at City University of Seattle or Strayer University - both universities are located in Seattle, WA where Starbucks is based out of.

Starbucks isn't the first retail giant to offer tuition reimbursement for low-wage workers. In 2010, Wal-Mart launched its own partnership with American Public University, giving employees and their family members the opportunity to apply for partial tuition grants to the university's online courses.

Wal-Mart claims that since the program began four years ago, more than 400 of its workers have completed degrees in American Public University's online school.

TagsStarbucks, funds, offer, employee, benefits, college, education