June 8, 2020
rpk GROUP continues its long partnership with the Lumina Foundation through a new project analyzing the business model behind All Learning Counts (ALC). ALC is Lumina’s initiative to support organizations working to ensure that knowledge, skills, and abilities gained outside formal higher education—through work, military, and other experiences—can be recognized and applied toward programs that lead to credentials of value.
Recipients from a nationwide pool of 78 applicants are: District 1199C Training and Upgrading Fund, Mi Casa Resource Center, Minnesota State Colleges and Universities, the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation, Nicolet College, SUNY Empire State College, the University of Maine System, the University of Wisconsin System and Virginia Community College System.
“Through All Learning Counts, we are recognizing exemplars who want to ensure many more Americans will have skills they need to thrive by earning college degrees, certificates, and industry certifications,” said Haley Glover, the Lumina strategy director who will provide leadership for the grant program. “We need to think in new ways about the recognition of learning after high school. We must see that all college-level learning, regardless of how and where it is gained, can be applied toward meaningful post-high school credentials.”
rpk GROUP will be examining the business model behind three of the ALC recipients:
- Mi Casa Resource Center – providing job training aligned with individual assessments and banking-related credentials developed by partners Metropolitan State University of Denver and the Community College of Aurora.
- SUNY Empire State College – evaluating job training programs for four national and regional employers, including CVS Health.
- Virginia Community College System – evaluating industry certification programs in five industries for inclusion in an online portal representing all 23 VCCS colleges.
rpk GROUP will be working with its partners throughout 2020 to build the framework for evaluating partners’ investments in these initiatives and their respective potential returns.
