The Penn Foster Blog

The August jobs report paints a very mixed picture for the future of employment in the United States. While the overall rate of job growth slowed during this month, there are some industries which are bucking the trend. Here are three interesting developments that the August jobs report revealed.

Whether your goal is to convert inquiries into enrollments or to help progress students through your program, developing a nurture campaign will help lead them to convert and succeed. While it may not be your only channel for communicating with inquiries and current students, having a well run email nurture series can drastically improve your lead generation efforts, as well as your overall student experience. There isn't a one-size-fits-all solution to nurturing students on their academic journey, however there are a few key strategies that, when used together effectively, wield impressive results.

Even though the unemployment rate in the United States has steadily decreased in recent years, job openings are now more plentiful than ever - as was seen in the most recent Department of Labor jobs report. Companies large and small are struggling to find the skilled workers they need, which had led to a drop in hiring - particularly in middle skils careers. Employers need to take action to address this skills gap and get hiring rates on the upswing once more.

As one of the leading providers of staffing and workforce solutions in the nation, EmployBridge spans over 490 locations and has been named the largest industrial staffing firm in the U.S. With its product being "productive people," EmployBridge understands the need to embody its core values in daily actions, support its associates, and foster a sense of community. In line with these values, EmployBridge recently announced the launch of the Better WorkLife Academy in partnership with Penn Foster!

Your frontline supervisors have a significant impact on your employees, and your overall business operations. Working directly with the staff on a daily basis, a supervisor's influence can improve productivity and employee satisfaction or have a detrimental effect on these metrics. In many cases, employee turnover isn't related to issues with the company itself, but instead is a result of frustration with ineffective supervisors.

At YouthBuild's 12th Annual Instructor Leadership Institute earlier this month, we announced YouthBuild graduates Kevin Wilson and Elijah Childs as the first recipients of the Dorothy Stoneman Scholarship. The scholarship fund, named in honor of YouthBuild Founder and long-time CEO, Dorothy Stoneman, who retired in January 2017, was created to help deserving YouthBuild and Penn Foster High School graduates continue their education in an associate or bachelor's degree program at Penn Foster College.

While the skills gap in the skilled trades industries is no secret, awareness of the talent shortage has primarily grown in the past few years. According to a study by Deloitte and the Manufacturing Institute, 3.5 million manufacturing jobs are expected to become available (and need to be filled) yet 2 million of these jobs are expected to go unfilled.1 However, not all businesses are taken aback by the widening skills gap, and some began preparing for the inevitable shortage years before national headlines began highlighting it.

As technology and an increasingly global economy and workforce continue to disrupt traditional work and higher education models, career and technical education (CTE) can offer high school and colleges students a comprehensive set of skills and experiences designed to give them a leg up after graduation.

The post-secondary education market is an increasingly crowded and competitive space. With prospective students having more options now than ever before to consider, what can colleges do to standout? Here are three simple tactics that career colleges can use to not only increase the number of inquiries and enrollments, but to attract students who will persist and thrive at their institution, and beyond.