From Electronic Sales Associate to Logistics Load Manager at Walmart: This is Courtney's story

What effective upskilling can look like for employees

Courtney Stingley started his Walmart journey as an Electronics Sales Associate. While he always wanted to grow his career, it wasn’t until the company launched an education and upskilling program that Courtney was able to get the training he needed to take the next step.

Now he’s a Logistics Load Manager—and a homeowner.

We recently wrote about how companies can create economic mobility for frontline workers. Courtney’s career journey is an example of how an effective upskilling program can accomplish that. The way to provide opportunity to frontline talent is to promote them, but first you have to prepare them for the next role. Skilling, whether upskilling for higher level roles or reskilling for different jobs entirely, must align with the future of work and advance them into more senior, higher paying positions that won’t be automated away in five years. With the right training programs in place—and a generous policy that enabled access—Courtney was able to get the education he needed to take the next step in his career and fulfill his dream of owning a home.

“As far as education goes, that was the turning key for me, to be able to stand as an example for all the people that feel, think, believe, even tell themselves that they can't do it or it's not possible. I stand as a testimony to it. It is possible."

Courtney S., from Electronic Sales Associate to Logistics Load Manager, Walmart

His employer, Walmart, provides one of the largest education and upskilling programs in the country, and they’ve proven their success again and again. Company leadership aligned their offerings with both corporate strategy and future-of-work priorities, rooting the program in structured upskilling and reskilling while expanding access to their 1.5 million associates with direct payment that enables employees to go back to school without taking on debt. To date, the program has had more than 25,000 employees enrolled.

For more on what a best-in-class education, upskilling and career mobility program can do, read a case study on Walmart.