The Penn Foster Blog

The pursuit of education, from earning a high school diploma to graduating college, is never an easy endeavor, especially for re-engaging students and nontraditional learners. A multitude of factors can affect the education attainment levels of someone struggling to go to or stay in school, including family life, social influences, unsupportive toxic surroundings, misguided direction, and lack of awareness of alternatives.

Educating our nation's youth requires ongoing involvement and support from education leaders. Although earning a high school diploma and enrolling in college are triumphant milestones for a student to reach, more of these students are failing to matriculate, faltering in the transitional period after graduation and before the first day of college classes. These college-enrolled students who never show up to campus comprise a phenomenon knownas "summer melt." During the summer months leading up to college, several factors can derail a student from actually stepping foot on campus in the fall, despite their academic ambition and college eligibility.

It's back-to-school season, and the second busiest shopping event of the year is in full swing. For many, the term back-to-school conjures up images of shiny yellow school buses, new backpacks filled will fresh supplies, rows and rows of lockers ready to be organized and personalized, and homerooms filled with desks awaiting a new crop of students ready to begin a new school year. 

Gaining a diploma was once a rite of passage and an open door to realized dreams and seized opportunities. However, the rewards of a standard college education are no longer outweighing the costs of heavy debt and lack of job opportunities. While college may be the right fit for some, many of today's diploma holders lack the necessary skill set to fulfill the growing job market of trade-specific jobs. Instead of thriving from education, 40 percent of attendees at a four-year college drop out before completing their degree.1 Luckily, the education sector offers a variety of cost-effective options for post-high school career success-options that offer targeted learning for a first step toward a future of achievements.

We hear a lot these days in business about the movement to more fluid, trust-based business models and consumer services. In the so called "uber" economy, trust takes on new forms and becomes  even more essential to success. We human beings do not like to be faced with uncertainty, vulnerability, or risk, and the next generation of businesses and institutions are proving that they can both deliver greater consumer value and embrace that trust defined as competence and integrity is a precondition to buying or enrolling.