WASHINGTON, April 24, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Cengage
Learning today joined Obama Administration officials, including
Vice President Biden, for the White House Upskill America Summit, a
gathering of national business and education leaders to focus on
efforts to train more front-line American workers. As the economy
continues to improve, American businesses are creating more jobs
for skilled workers and now they need employees with the right
skills to fill those positions.
President Obama's State of the Union Address called for a
renewal of economic opportunity in America and companies nationwide
-- seeking commitments to implement practices that enable more
front-line workers to advance into better paying jobs. Among
the efforts highlighted as part of the Summit, the Obama
Administration announced two new commitments leveraging Cengage
Learning's Career Online High School (COHS), to offer career
certificate training and accredited high school diplomas to all
eligible U.S. employees at McDonald's Corporation and Walmart
Stores Inc. These partnerships have the potential to change the
lives of up to 10,000 front-line workers in the first year.
"With a shortage of skilled workers for today's workforce, there
is a clear need to change the game for frontline workers with
learning and training opportunities leading to marketable and
nationally recognized credentials," said Ron Stefanski, Executive Director of Strategic
Alliances at Cengage Learning. "Through partnerships with visionary
companies such as McDonald's and Walmart, we see great opportunity
to impact workers directly. Innovative education and training
can make a profound difference in advancing the Upskill America
challenge and lead directly to higher paying jobs."
McDonald's Corporation
Through its partnership with
Cengage Learning, McDonald's hopes to reach at least 5,000
employees with a single elective career course, also making this
resource available to its franchise stores. Building
on a previous partnership with Cengage Learning that brought these
resources to its corporate employees, up to 1,000 McDonald's
employees are expected to complete the elective course and move on
to complete the entire Cengage Learning COHS diploma program.
"At McDonald's, we believe that education is the true
game-changer and we're proud to provide tools and world-class
training that help our people succeed," said Rich Floersch, Executive Vice President of
Global Human Resources, McDonald's Corporation. "As part of our
Archways to Opportunity program, we are pleased to be working with
Cengage Learning's Career Online High School to make a high school
diploma, as well as a career certificate that provides real world
career skills, possible."
Walmart Stores Inc.
Cengage Learning has also entered
into an expanded partnership with Walmart to offer its COHS program
for free to all U.S. Walmart associates. This expands upon a pilot
this past year where 1,300 associates participated in a first
career certificate course. Of those participants, 30 percent
successfully completed the course and moved on to enroll in the
full high school program. To-date, 85 percent of these associates
are on pace to complete their accredited high school credential and
career certificate. Walmart's leading role with this program
provides access for thousands of associates to participate in
upskilling opportunities.
Brian Poland, Director, Lifelong
Learning & Education at Walmart, has been a strategic partner
with Cengage Learning's Career Online High School since 2014 in
order to provide upskilling opportunities to their 1.2 million
associates nationwide. "After only nine months since program
launch, we already have eleven graduates with many more associates
nearing program completion," said Poland.
COHS was developed in 2012 through a partnership by Cengage
Learning and Smart Horizons Career Online Education in an effort to
provide affordable and accredited, career-based opportunities for
the millions of adults in the United
States without high school diplomas. COHS serves a number of
leading organizations with opportunities for employees and
communities, such as Brown Mackie
College, Maricopa Community College District, Tarrant County
College District, Kinexus, the Workforce Development Council of
Seattle-King County, and other corporations,
non-profits and public library systems. To learn more about the
COHS program and partnership opportunities, please visit
http://www.careeronlinehs.org/.
About Cengage Learning
Cengage Learning is a leading educational content, technology,
and services company for the higher education and K-12,
professional and library markets worldwide. The company provides
superior content, personalized services and course-driven digital
solutions that accelerate student engagement and transform the
learning experience. Cengage Learning is headquartered in
Boston, MA with an office hub
located in San Francisco, CA.
Cengage Learning employees reside in nearly 40 different countries
with company sales in more than 125 countries around the
world. www.cengage.com.
Media Contacts:
Susan
Aspey
Cengage Learning
202-695-6012
Susan.Aspey@cengage.com
Lindsay Stanley
Cengage Learning
203-965-8634
Lindsay.Stanley@cengage.com
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SOURCE Cengage Learning