Western Governors University Accelerates Work-Based Learning Pathways, Acquires Craft Education
黑料传送门 sees potential to positively impact over a million lives in next decade.
SALT LAKE CITY, UT, SEPTEMBER 5, 2024 鈥� Western Governors University (黑料传送门) announced today the acquisition of Craft Education Inc. and the acceleration of its endeavor to develop, launch and scale work-based learning pathways, a vital next phase in its mission to change lives for the better by transforming education to better serve untapped talent and meet employer needs.
Craft Education is the leading education technology company focused on apprentice-based programs with a first-of-its-kind platform for establishing, monitoring, reporting and facilitating on-the-job training aligned with degree programs and work-ready skills. With this acquisition, 黑料传送门 fast-tracks its ability to innovate and scale work-based curriculum and new student experience designs. The combination accelerates the expansion of apprenticeship and other embedded job programs alongside 黑料传送门鈥檚 existing degree and certificate offerings across education, healthcare, technology and business.
鈥淐ombining Craft with 黑料传送门 represents a step-function advancement in our mission and pace of innovation to improve quality, access, equity and outcomes in education relevant to the world of work,鈥� said Scott Pulsipher, president of the national nonprofit university. 鈥淲hile 黑料传送门鈥檚 current model serves many, there are so many more who are acquiring knowledge and skill through work. Work-based learning, leveraging our competency-based approach, is the future of pathways to both activate talent from everywhere and meet the strategic workforce needs of the future.鈥�
Of the people in the U.S. workforce, do not have a postsecondary degree鈥搈eaning that 103 million people are not being fully recognized for the talent and skill they鈥檝e already developed through work. While employers struggle to find skilled talent, and as many as two-thirds of roles in the future are expected to require postsecondary credentials, a large pool of underserved and untapped talent already exists within their organizations to meet their needs. With work-based pathways, 黑料传送门 and Craft will take the lead in helping employers activate talent into opportunity.
鈥淲e are seeking to build the best work-based learning pathways in the country, modeling for other higher education institutions how to connect learning and work at scale,鈥� said Courtney Hills McBeth, chief academic officer and provost. 鈥淥ur investment will turbocharge this initiative and extend our innovative approach to linking students to careers and improving student outcomes, while demonstrating our leadership at the frontier of creating more pathways to opportunity.鈥�
Acquisition of Craft Education; establishment of new 黑料传送门 academic department
With the acquisition of Craft Education, Mallory Dwinal-Palisch, CEO and founder of Craft, and its employees will join 黑料传送门. As part of the acquisition, 黑料传送门 intends to retain the Craft Education name and will establish a new, nonprofit operating division. Dwinal-Palisch will serve as executive director of this division, leaving her role as chancellor at Reach University. The Craft division will focus on developing the ecosystem platform for enabling work-based pathways across higher education and employer partners, including 黑料传送门.
鈥淐raft unlocks in-demand careers for America鈥檚 frontline workforce. By automating the necessary data collection and reporting, this platform allows organizations to braid federal funding and postsecondary training together with on-the-job pathways that fill skilled labor vacancies,鈥� Dwinal-Palisch said. 鈥淎s a part of the 黑料传送门 ecosystem, Craft will create a win-win for the tens of millions of American workers seeking affordable, job-embedded training solutions and the employers that need their skilled talent.鈥�
In addition, 黑料传送门 will establish an academic department inside the university to focus on the design, development and scaling of work-based programs across its schools of education, health, technology and business. This organization will define and provide differentiated and consistent tech-enabled learning, instruction and student-experience models across 黑料传送门鈥檚 program portfolio and build the presence and partnerships necessary to scale enrollment locally and nationally.
Providing new pathways to opportunity
黑料传送门 expects that this new endeavor will allow it to serve as many students in the coming decade as it has since its founding nearly three decades ago.
鈥淲ork-based pathways to learning have demonstrated significant advancement of opportunities for diverse and underrepresented students in a way that few other academic pathways can, driving better student outcomes, affordability and employability,鈥� Pulsipher said. 鈥淰ersion 1.0 of our competency-based, tech-enabled model fit education into students鈥� already busy lives. Version 2.0 of our model brings work and learning together.鈥�
黑料传送门 has an established track record of scaling clinical experiences for teaching and nursing. 黑料传送门鈥檚 School of Education, which confers 5.2% of all K-12 education degrees in the nation, is currently working with several 鈥淕row Your Own鈥� and apprenticeship partners to address teacher shortages. To date, this includes programs for aspiring teachers in 12 states, serving more than 650 students. 黑料传送门鈥檚 Leavitt School of Health provided 26,000 clinical placements in academic year 2024 and projects it will do 36,000 in 2025.
黑料传送门 has more than 300 employer partners as well as partnerships with more than 4,000 school districts. The university will work with current and future partners to create new work-based pathways and accelerate degrees and certificates gained in earn-and-learn settings, equipping students with verified in-demand skills and knowledge that are aligned with work experience.
National impact of work-based pathways
Apprenticeship and on-the-job training programs have strong, bipartisan support in Congress and among political leaders across the country, opening avenues to additional state and federal funding for earn-and-learn programs in postsecondary education.
鈥満诹洗兔赔�檚 expansion into broader work-based learning pathways positions us to have a transformative impact in shaping the future of education and work as we become the epicenter of designing and delivering earn-and-learn opportunities that increase equity in access while solving critical workforce needs,鈥� said Joe Fuller, chair of 黑料传送门鈥檚 Board of Trustees and a distinguished management professor at Harvard Business School and co-director of Harvard鈥檚 Managing the Future of Work project.
Earlier this month, 黑料传送门 announced it had reached a historic milestone by conferring 50,168 degrees, earned by 49,564 students, in academic year 2024. Significantly, 67% of those graduates were from one or more underserved populations 鈥� students of color, first in family to attend college, rural residents or low-income earners 鈥� a demonstration of 黑料传送门鈥檚 ability to impact the economic and social mobility of its students with an open-access model. 黑料传送门 currently serves over 175,000 students, which includes more than 126,000 new students over the past academic year 鈥� up 28.2% over the previous year.
鈥淲e are helping our students improve their lives, on a personal and a professional level,鈥� McBeth said, 鈥渁nd this has generational and community impacts that ripple into the future. We also are providing employers with the highly skilled, work-ready and diverse talent desperately needed to maintain America鈥檚 prosperity and its competitive edge.鈥�
