The Penn Foster Blog

Admissions directors at four-year universities and community colleges are facing more pressure than ever, the latest Inside Higher Ed Survey of College and University Admissions Directors found.1 Controversies over admissions practices and student loan debt are just a few of the numerous challenges admissions directors now have on their plate. While career schools may not face all the same challenges as their peer institutions, there are nonetheless many parallels and valuable insights they can draw from these findings.

Historically, classroom material has been designed to be taught by a teacher, not to be self-taught by the student. However, since students are capable of learning and contributing so much more to their educational experience than just passively memorizing and regurgitating material, the role of the educator is changing. This article dives into three core pillars of student empowerment and how educators can leverage these pillars to work in tandem with students to enable greater outcomes.

Smart, successful companies invest in employee development, partly because they're one of the best ways to motivate and retain employees. There's abundant research to support this, including:

As September drew to a close, the medical community was bracing itself for the long-awaited transition from the ICD-9 to the ICD-10 medical classification system.1 Not everyone was prepared for it, however - according to a readiness survey by the Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange, a quarter of physician practice respondents said they weren't ready for the Oct. 1 deadline, while another quarter wasn't sure if they were ready.2 Despite this, the initial transition seems to have gone well, and no major problems have been reported.

Talent shortage is one of the top hiring challenges facing companies today. Forty-eight percent of recruiters said they don't see enough qualified candidates for open positions, according to the Glassdoor Recruiting Outlook Survey.1 In addition, ManpowerGroup's 2015 Talent Shortage study found that 38 percent of companies are having more difficulty filling jobs than last year, the highest percentage since 2007.2

Nontraditional students are now the majority in post-secondary education. According to a Department of Education study published this September,1 74 percent of students in the 2011-2012 school year possessed at least one nontraditional characteristic. As defined by the DOE's study, nontraditional characteristics include not having a traditional high school diploma, attending school part-time, working full-time, delaying post-secondary enrollment, being independent for financial aid purposes, having one or more dependents, or being a single caregiver.

Recently, the Institute for Workforce Innovation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the communities of north central Florida, celebrated a new attendance milestone and the post-graduate success of students from its Project YouthBuild AmeriCorps/Penn Foster High School Completion Program in Gainesville, FL.

In today's technology-driven environment, academic institutions have numerous options for serving students who don't fit the traditional mold. For years, traditional two- and four-year colleges have been offering full-time online courses in an effort to accommodate these nontraditional students, but career colleges have done so less frequently, as those programs require more hands-on learning. Now another method is quickly catching on across career college campuses - the blended learning model. This practice combines in-person education with Internet resources or online courses. If you're considering implementing blended learning in the classroom, these are a few of the benefits for both your school and your students1.

Many products and services, from magazine subscriptions and book clubs to software and digital services offer a risk-free trial program. Career colleges may wish to borrow this tactic and offer prospective students a risk-free trial period at their school. Doing so shows prospective students that you understand their anxiety about enrolling. Some students may not be familiar with the idea of career college, or they may be unsure how it compares with other educational options. Others will be uncertain how they will perform in a career college environment. A risk-free trial gives them a chance to relieve these concerns by experiencing career college firsthand before enrolling. Here are a few best practices to effectively and ethically use this strategy:

The thought of juggling both work and class can often be a roadblock for employees who'd like to go back to school. At first glance, employers might be reluctant to hire workers who are juggling several external responsibilities. But employers who support their employees in earning a degree can reap a variety of benefits, including increased loyalty, higher retention rates, and greater engagement at work. Here's how you can help ease your employee's education journey.