EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY

Penn Foster secures investment to accelerate the pairing of data science with digital learning based on skills.

prnewswire | January 21, 2021

Labor force improvement pioneer Penn Foster today declared a critical new speculation from BayPine and Two Sigma Impact to quicken the form out of its computerized learning stage zeroed in on planning frontline laborers to flourish inside high-development, high-expertise occupations. The two speculation organizations will band together with Penn Foster to acquire new capacities information science and trend setting innovation to help the organization keep on contribution down to earth, reasonable answers for its understudies.

"Skill gaps and economic mobility are, in many ways, two sides of the same coin," said Frank Britt, Chief Executive Officer of Penn Foster. "This investment reflects our belief that the combination of advanced labor market analytics with low-cost digital training can help individuals make better-informed decisions about their educational investments. It's about enabling employers to close skill gaps by identifying and creating career paths for historically untapped talent."

A computerized learning stage that works in association with bosses, public labor force offices, and local area based associations, Penn Foster conveys expertise based preparing for in excess of 300,000 working students every year. Notwithstanding offering authorize projects and declarations in fields going from medical care to talented exchanges, Penn Foster accomplices with significant managers, including Lowe's and Walmart, to give secondary school recognition and vocation instructional classes that are regularly entrances to higher pay jobs.

"Two Sigma Impact believes that by focusing on creating a better workforce, we can create long term value and better business outcomes," said Ian Blasco, Partner at Two Sigma Impact. "We are excited to work with Penn Foster to apply advanced data science techniques to the development of dynamic, skills-based training that is tightly coupled with the demands of the labor market."

"For decades, Penn Foster has been at the forefront of delivering flexible, affordable, and job-relevant development programs that have redefined the intersection of education and work," said Anjan Mukherjee, Managing Partner at BayPine. "The implementation of digital transformation initiatives to unlock human potential is core to our thesis, and we look forward to working closely with management to develop a modern, agile platform at Penn Foster that leverages the power of data to drive better outcomes for working learners."

In "Unstuck in the Middle," a white paper delivered by Penn Foster a year ago, the organization put forth the defense that perceiving ability fulfillment along a range could open financial versatility for laborers utilized in positions that require in excess of a secondary school confirmation however not a long term degree. As per the National Skills Coalition, while center ability occupations make up the biggest segment of the US work market, only 44% of laborers are right now prepared to the center expertise level. A new report distributed by the philanthropic, Opportunity@Work, proposes that the assessed 71 million Americans who need four-year degrees, however are "Gifted Through Alternative Routes" (STARs), speak to an undiscovered pool of ability for US bosses.

"The critical need for different ways to approach training and education for workers has become more prominent in the past few years, and the pressure on our economy created by the pandemic has only emphasized that the time has come for a workforce transformation," said Ann Ruble, Operating Partner at Two Sigma Impact. "New data-driven approaches to learning will help expand access to training in high-demand fields for both workers and employers at a time when it is needed most."

This speculation speaks to the following period of Penn Foster's development following an effective organization with Bain Capital Double Impact, the effect contributing unit of Bain Capital. Terms of the exchange were not unveiled. Macquarie Capital filled in as monetary guide and William Blair and Company as co-consultant to Penn Foster. Everberg Capital additionally partook in the exchange. Jamieson gave exchange the board guidance.

Spotlight

The B2B buyer journey has always been complex. And today, with the ever-changing demands of the modern industry buyer, it has become even more necessary to rethink the buyer journey, creating a future-ready digital experience

Spotlight

The B2B buyer journey has always been complex. And today, with the ever-changing demands of the modern industry buyer, it has become even more necessary to rethink the buyer journey, creating a future-ready digital experience

Related News

TALENT DEVELOPMENT

PowerSchool Introduces International Localization Framework to Support Growing Global Customer Base

Businesswire | March 28, 2023

PowerSchool the leading provider of cloud-based software for K-12 education in North America, today announced it is in later stage development of localization features for customers to use in their regions developed under PowerSchool’s proprietary international framework. The upcoming release enables out of box support for right-to-left language support and Arabic translation capabilities in three of its Unified Operations solutions, including Unified Operations PowerSchool SIS, Unified Operations PowerSchool Enrollment Express, and Unified Operations PowerSchool Ecollect Forms, as well as its learning management system (LMS), PowerSchool Unified Classroom® Schoology Learning. “This international framework is critical for delivering our world-class solutions to our extensive and growing international customer base,” said Tony Kender, Chief Revenue Officer at PowerSchool. “PowerSchool will continue to prioritize providing our global customers with the tools they need to support their students and improve learning outcomes.” This framework supports localization of a user’s experience (such as right-to-left language support) to empower international educational institutions to deliver tailored instruction to the more than 50 million students in more than 90 countries PowerSchool serves. Additional toolkits will be made available to support localization for other regions and languages for the growing number of students, educators, and families using PowerSchool solutions to achieve their desired learning outcomes worldwide. In the near term, the right-to-left and Arabic language translation toolkit will empower more educators around the world with timesaving, centralized access to the tools they need to deliver tailored instruction, elevate data utilization, and foster family engagement. “As PowerSchool expands globally, including across the UAE, it is important for us to offer right-to-left language support and Arabic translation capabilities,” said Robert Speed, Vice President International Sales at PowerSchool. “With more than 313 million people speaking Arabic around the world, these language supports ensure more educators, students, and families can benefit from the digital transformation of education.” The new language support provides users with multiple benefits including: • Helping educators, students, and families who read right-to-left interact and learn in a more familiar and accessible way. • Providing the opportunity for students to develop collaboration skills in their primary language. • Eliminating manual translation tasks for both educators and students, which can interfere with the learning process. • Ensuring educational institutions support equity and access to a larger proportion of their students and families. PowerSchool customers can also utilize the self-service Language Toolkit feature within PowerSchool SIS, Enrollment Express, and Ecollect Forms to load additional Arabic translations as well as other languages that can be leveraged by any partners across the globe to localize to their regional needs. For Schoology Learning users, PowerSchool directly provides right-to-left language support and Arabic translation capabilities. The right-to-left language support and Arabic translation capabilities will be fully available to PowerSchool customers in late 2023. About PowerSchool PowerSchool is the leading provider of cloud-based software for K-12 education in North America. Its mission is to power the education ecosystem with unified technology that helps educators and students realize their full potential, in their way. PowerSchool connects students, teachers, administrators, and parents, with the shared goal of improving student outcomes. From the office to the classroom to the home, it helps schools and districts efficiently manage state reporting and related compliance, special education, finance, human resources, talent, registration, attendance, funding, learning, instruction, grading, assessments and analytics in one unified platform. PowerSchool supports over 50 million students globally and more than 15,000 customers, including over 90 of the top 100 districts by student enrollment in the United States, and sells solutions in over 90 countries.

Read More

TALENT DEVELOPMENT

Savvas Learning Company Acquires Whooo's Reading and AI Technology

Savvas Learning Company | March 13, 2023

Savvas Learning Company, a K-12 e-learning solutions provider, has recently announced its acquisition of Whooo's Reading and its AI-driven technology. This acquisition would help teachers to assess students' writing and reading comprehension skills. It would enable teachers to determine whether their students comprehend the books they are reading with ease. With the strong support of the National Science Foundation, the AI-based technology working behind Whooo's Reading solution assists students in practicing reading comprehension skills. It empowers them with real-time feedback on their written responses to the open-ended critical thinking questions about the reading content. Its proprietary machine-learning algorithm automates the assessment process of their writing and provides teachers with actionable data based on the student's strengths and weaknesses. With this data, teachers can organize and differentiate instructional content. Above all, it saves the valuable time of the teachers. CEO of Savvas Learning Company, Bethlam Forsa said, "Artificial intelligence technology has the power to transform K-12 education by dramatically helping to personalize the teaching and learning experience." She added, "The AI-driven technology that supports Whooo's Reading is a great example of this. It gives students personalized and adaptive feedback on their writing and reading skills, empowering them to grow as learners. It also provides teachers with valuable insights into which skills their students need extra support with, allowing them to customize instruction." (Source –Investors Observer) CEO and President of Whooo's Reading, Raphael Menko said, "Savvas is an innovative organization that is committed to creating high-quality personalized learning solutions," Raphael Menko, said. "We've always wanted to impact more students. We're thrilled now to be able to expand the reach of this incredible technology and impact the millions of students who use Savvas products." (Source –Investors Observer) About Savvas Learning Company Headquartered in Paramus, New Jersey, Savvas Learning Company, an education administration programs company, provides innovation and quality content for all PerK-12 grade levels and disciplines. It offers excellent educational resources like core curriculum, supplemental content, intervention programs, and professional development. It connects new ideas, thinking, and interaction to design learning solutions to prepare students to become a global citizen in the interconnected digital world. Teaming up with authors and educators, it leverages data-driven advanced technology for immersive, personalized, and flexible content. It gives teachers, as well as students, a real-world learning experience. It avails students of the chance to succeed in the classroom and life.

Read More

ONLINE EDUCATION

Ellucian Partners with SenecaLab to Expand Digital Transformation for Higher Education in Panama

PRnewswire | May 19, 2023

Ellucian, the leading higher education technology solutions provider, today announced a partnership with SenecaLab, a Panamanian company that has been selected by Forbes as one of the 30 promising businesses in Central America, to successfully resell Ellucian solutions in Panama and in other parts of Latin America. This partnership will broaden Ellucian's reach in Latin America, introducing best-in-class products and services, with the help of SenecaLab's deep expertise in the region. In collaboration with SenecaLab, Ellucian will help colleges and universities meet and exceed their strategic goals and drive student success across Panama. Ellucian solutions allow higher education institutions to focus on learning the needs of students by simplifying complex registration, enrollment and administrative processes. For faculty and staff, Ellucian enables greater visibility and transparency supporting data-driven decision making across institutions. "Ellucian is the leading provider of technology to higher education institutions in North America, and together with SenecaLab's unique knowledge of Panama's education system and expertise with both local and regional regulations, we will help scale digital transformation for higher education in Panama," said Jeff Dinski, Chief Strategy and Corporate Developement Officer, Ellucian. "Standardizing and unifying data will make it easier for institutions across the country to plan and share information to ensure greater student experiences and access to education." "Digital transformation is a priority for higher education institutions, and SenecaLab is pleased with this alliance. It will allow us to accompany higher education institutions, because we understand their challenges, and contribute in areas such as change management, leadership, and processes that end up being decisive in the success of institutional modernization. Together, with the most flexible, secure and proven Ellucian technology, as well as best practices from the best universities in the world, we will lead them to effectively develop their full potential," said Adriana Angarita, CEO and Founder, SenecaLab. About Ellucian Ellucian powers innovation for higher education, partnering with more than 2,900 customers across 50 countries, serving 22 million students. Fueled by decades of experience with a singular focus on the unique needs of learning institutions, the Ellucian platform features best-in-class SaaS capabilities and delivers insights needed now and into the future. These solutions and services span the entire student lifecycle, including data-rich tools for student recruitment, enrollment, and retention to workforce analytics, fundraising, and alumni engagement. Ellucian's innovative solutions, vast ecosystem of partners and user community of more than 45,000 provides best practices leading to greater institutional success and achieving better student outcomes. About SenecaLab Panamanian company that develops educational projects based on technology for competitiveness and measurement of educational quality in Latin America. We design solutions to empower human beings and connect them with society. Integrated by professionals with extensive experience in higher education, we accompany institutions through their processes aimed at their success.

Read More