During the 2021 Annual Meeting of Shareholders, Bob Chapek answered a question about the Disney College Program which was temporarily suspended last year. Chapek stated that there was “no specific date” set to resume the program, however as COVID-19 vaccines roll out and cases begin to decline, he is hopeful about reinstating the program by the end of 2021.
Participants of the Disney College Program must be a current college graduate or have graduated within the past year. Chapek was asked what this would mean for those that planned to participate before the program’s unexpected closure, but would no longer be eligible according to the current requirements.
While no official plans or eligibility requirement changes have been made, Chapek stated that extending the eligibility requirements to those that missed out on the program would be a great idea. We expect to hear a possible announcement on updated eligibility requirements soon.
The College Program was suspended abruptly back in March of 2020 when the Walt Disney World theme parks closed due to the pandemic.
Now it only they would announce when the return of dining plan or fast pass is..
I have to get my cheap labor back
LOL I told my wife about this and while reading your comment she said the exact same thing. She said she was paid $5.50 an hour (2005), meanwhile someone off the street made $9.50 and the college credits did nothing for her degree (which was a theater degree, so…. take that part as you may).
well the cheap labor isn’t really that cheap now, when i was in the college program before Covid I was getting $12 a hour, and when the program comes back its probably going to be $15 a hour.
How about some of the 30,000 cast member waiting for ANYTHING from the company?
We know that Disney will certainly want the cheap labor versus fulltime cast members at a more market based rate that invariably also provide a better guest experience.
This saddens me deeply. don’t get me wrong, i love the College Program (cp), (and understand their impact around the parks) but there are thousands of regular cast members that need their jobs back first before pulling in students from other states. Disney is just trying to get their “cheap labor” CPs back so they can reem them on their paycheck for boarding. i would hope that they do a large hiring of locals becasue the CP get called in.