The Penn Foster Blog

Testing out different subject lines, layouts, copy, and images is key to your career college’s email marketing success, and today, the most popular testing method is an A/B test.

When most people hear the word "apprenticeship," they envision the model that Europe has used for hundreds of years " young adults choosing to make horseshoes on an anvil rather than enrolling in higher education " substituting on the job learning for formal education. This Game of Thrones-like image is a completely outdated view on apprenticeship that holds back its development. The modern, American incarnation of apprenticeship, which is experiencing a renaissance in a world of severe labor shortages in skilled trades, differs in three crucial ways from the stereotype.

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.