TALENT DEVELOPMENT
Businesswire | May 17, 2023
Watermark, a leading provider of software solutions for higher education, announced today a strategic partnership with Lightcast, a global leader in labor market data, analytics, and expert guidance. This collaboration will empower higher education institutions to make better-informed strategic planning and program review decisions by seamlessly integrating labor market data directly into Watermark's Planning & Self-Study software.
The partnership's goal is to bring the valuable labor market data already available in Lightcast Analyst directly to those charged with making critical decisions on the viability of program offerings.
With the partnership, Watermark will begin offering the Market Landscape Data Pack as an add-on to Watermark's Planning & Self-Study software, an award-winning solution which facilitates continuous improvement processes such as strategic and assessment planning, program review, and accreditation reporting. The data pack will provide institutions with the ability to understand their market landscape and ensure program relevance by providing curated labor market data points to the right people involved in the program review process at the right time.
Furthermore, institutions using both Watermark and Lightcast products gain significant advantages with a more efficient program review process and abilities to deep dive into opportunity areas using Lightcast Analyst or other Lightcast offerings such as Skillabi and Alumni Pathways.
"We are thrilled to partner with Lightcast to equip higher education institutions with the crucial data they need to make informed decisions benefiting their students and programs,” said Erin Shy, CEO of Watermark. “As labor market data becomes increasingly important in higher education, our partnership with Lightcast will enable institutions to integrate this crucial information into their planning and program review processes, ultimately leading to more successful outcomes for their students."
Formed in 2021 after the merger of Emsi and Burning Glass, Lightcast is a global pioneer in labor market data and analysis committed to connecting individuals with the right skills and jobs in the right places. With over two decades of experience and a client base of 1,500 organizations worldwide that serve learners and institutions (including colleges, universities, associations, ed tech firms, and more), Lightcast collects real-time data from over 50,000 sources daily. Combining this data with curated input from various statistical sources offers comprehensive insights into occupations, skills in demand, and career pathways. Lightcast helps businesses, communities, and educational institutions make informed decisions in the fast-changing world of work.
"Our partnership with Watermark is an exciting opportunity to further our mission of providing higher education institutions with the data they need to serve their students better,” said Chris Kibarian, CEO of Lightcast. “By integrating our labor market data directly into Watermark's software, we can help institutions save time, increase consistency and trust, and make more informed decisions about their programs and strategic planning."
Watermark and Lightcast are committed to helping higher education institutions navigate the ever-changing labor market landscape and adapt their programs and strategies accordingly. This initial offering marks the beginning of a strong collaboration focused on solving the critical challenge of delivering the right data to the right people for better decision-making in higher education.
About Watermark
Watermark advances educational impact by developing innovative technology that educators and institutional leaders can trust. Supporting over 1,700 higher education institutions worldwide, Watermark launched in 2018 following the merger of Taskstream, Tk20, and LiveText — three of the leading providers of assessment management technology in the industry – with Digital Measures, EvaluationKIT, and SmartCatalog. Aviso Retention joined the Watermark family in 2020. With solutions in the areas of assessment and accreditation management, faculty activity reporting, course evaluations and surveys, curriculum and catalog management, and student success and retention, Watermark’s more than 400 team members are committed to helping colleges and universities operate more strategically and effectively to maximize the impact they have on their students and communities.
About Lightcast
Lightcast provides trusted global labor market data, analytics, and expert guidance that empowers communities, corporations, and learning providers to make informed decisions and navigate the increasingly complex world of work. With a database of more than one billion job postings and career profiles, Lightcast delivers best-in-class customer service with robust data, clear analysis, and expert guidance on skills, jobs, and opportunities.
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CONTINUING EDUCATION
PRnewswire | May 30, 2023
LINQ, the leading K-12 education business solutions provider, today announced the launch of LINQ Connect, a K-12 education SaaS platform to improve parent-to-school transactions. LINQ Connect is the latest iteration of the widely used TITAN Family Portal platform, adopted by more than 1,500 school districts,16,000 schools, and over 1.2 million parents and guardians across the U.S.
LINQ Connect provides parents and schools with a modernized payment system that eliminates the need to send cash for school lunches, class field trips or additional course materials. The automated payment platform provides a secure method for financial transactions to ensure successful and accurate payments, reduces risks associated with cash transactions and relies less on school finance staff to make daily cash-on-hand deposits.
"Districts are feeling the negative effects of staffing shortages, budget restrictions and school meal debt, so they need a system to easily manage communication and financial transactions with parents and guardians," said Bryan Jones, CEO of LINQ. "LINQ Connect offers a solution that simplifies the management of information and financial transactions throughout the school year for our district partners, easing daily interactions for busy parents and students, and helping schools strengthen their relationships with the communities they serve."
As schools face unprecedented levels of unpaid meal debt, LINQ Connect allows schools to send notifications about low balances or debt to parents and guardians in a discreet and direct manner. Moreover, the platform enables parents and guardians to input food allergy information, review nutritional information for school meals and place spending restrictions on accounts to ensure funds last the intended period of time. The platform can be translated in Armenian, Burmese, Chinese, French, Korean, Spanish, Russian and Vietnamese to ensure all parents and guardians have access to their children's nutrition and play an active role in their educational experience.
"LINQ Connect was designed to ease the burden on parents and school district office staff through easy-to-use technologies that guarantee the information is readily available and accessible for parents and caregivers," said Brandy Keller, Senior Vice President at LINQ. "Now, they can digitally access their children's meal accounts, apply for free or reduced meals, and monitor their nutrition through a single payment system that is secure and convenient and provides parents and caregivers the opportunity to share information with their schools."
Schools that currently use the platform will have access to a library of resources to support communication and engagement with parents and guardians, as well as district toolkits, offered in Spanish and English, to support the adoption of the enhanced platform for new and existing users. For parents, using the new platform is as simple as downloading a new application; their past balances will transfer seamlessly.
About LINQ
LINQ brings a new level of digital transformation and operation efficiency to K-12 leaders across districts and states. Built by a team of K-12 experts, our solutions include Nutrition for districts and states, Education Resource Planning (ERP), Forms & Workflows for districts and Payment portals for Parents and Guardians. Through our first-of-its kind K-12 Business Platform, LINQ is committed to Empowering the Business of K-12.
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TALENT DEVELOPMENT
Businesswire | May 18, 2023
Flatiron School, a global provider of technical education, launched curriculum enhancements designed to teach students how to leverage powerful, emerging artificial intelligence (AI) tools.
The curriculum enhancements affect Flatiron School’s four disciplines - software engineering, data science, cybersecurity, and UX / UI product design - and come at a time where AI requirements are increasingly appearing in job descriptions. For the past 10 years, Flatiron School has been committed to keeping curriculum modern, aligning with the ever-evolving tech landscape. Now, as new AI tools emerge, Flatiron School continues to lead tech education in providing students with the skills needed to thrive in today’s job market.
“Even as AI reshapes the industry, we expect demand for tech talent to remain strong,” said Kate Cassino, Flatiron School CEO. “The most competitive talent will have the skills needed to unlock the full potential of AI, and that’s why now is the time to invest in our students. Our latest curriculum enhancements empower students with the skills needed to not only excel in an evolving job market, but also to advance the future of tech through innovation.”
The enhancements cover topics such as machine learning, natural language processing (NLP), and prompt engineering. Students will learn how to use generative AI as a research tool, effectively communicate with AI chatbots, build AI models, and leverage machine learning (ML) for testing. Curriculum enhancements include:
• Software Engineering. Discover how AI can help with code debugging, enable code completion, and integrate AI features into apps. Students will also learn prompt engineering and how to successfully correspond with chatbots.
• Data Science. Learn the fundamentals of AI theory, including concepts such as data leakage, overfitting, and regularization. Students will also learn scikit-learn (a popular AI library for Python programming language) as well as how to build AI models for text data (also known as natural language processing).
• Cybersecurity. Gain experience leveraging AI and machine learning for threat intelligence feeds, vulnerability and penetration testing, and detecting anomalous and behavioral events. Students will also learn how bad actors could leverage AI to crack encryption.
• UX / UI Product Design. Explore how to co-create with AI for inspiration, as well as how to analyze potential biases in AI-generated design solutions. Students will also learn about the implications of AI on intellectual property, how to develop user journeys with generative AI, and how to use natural language processing to automate identification of patterns in user data.
Taught by instructors with real-world experience, Flatiron School’s courses are offered online or in-person on New York City or Denver campuses. Students can choose full-time or part-time programs, which are paced between 15 and 60 weeks. Upon graduation Flatiron School provides up to 180 days of 1-on-1 career coaching.
About Flatiron
Since 2012, Flatiron School has been an education innovator, training over 10,000 graduates in software engineering, data science, cybersecurity, and product design. Flatiron School works with students, universities and colleges, and industry-leading companies around the world to provide essential technical training. When it comes to landing a job, Flatiron School graduates have a proven track record of success thanks to experienced instructors and dedicated career coaches.
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