Ideas & Trends | Webinars and Presentations | Featured Provider Network
North America, has joined EdLink’s FPN!
Please see article below. Understanding Scholarship & Recognition Services
By Anjanette M. Swingle
Introductory Note: We have often received inquiries from corporations and other organizations about Scholarship Programs -- to understand the value, features and benefits of these programs and how they are different from Tuition Assistance Benefits. To provide greater clarity, we reached out to ACT Inc, a leader in providing scholarship and recognition programs and one of EdLink’s two parent organizations. This article helps to provide an initial understanding of Scholarship Programs.
Scholarships are a form of corporate philanthropy. They can build or promote corporate identity, enrich communities by supporting education, and ultimately improve the lives of individuals through charitable and worthwhile pursuits. Although the purpose of a scholarship is to provide money toward the cost of education, scholarships and recognition programs differ greatly from tuition assistance programs. Click here to read the rest of the article.
CAEL's New Virtual PLA Center
CAEL, one of EdLink’s parent organizations, is a pioneer in the area of Prior Learning Assessment (PLA). PLA offers individual employees a way to accelerate their progress toward a degree. Essentially, it allows a student to apply for college credit based on learning achieved through on-the-job training, military service, volunteerism and other activities. The benefits both to the employee and the company are many, including faster achievement of a bachelor’s degree and reduced overall expense, since the student may require less time in the classroom.
CAEL recently was awarded a grant from Lumina Foundation for Education to design an accessible “virtual” PLA Center in coordination with a cross-sector of colleges and universities, the American Council on Education, and the College Board. CAEL hopes to launch an Assessment Center pilot project by June. Look for more information about this exciting initiative in future issues of TAPwire.
Linking Learning to the Business
By Patti P. Phillips, Ph.D., and Jack J. Phillips., Ph.D.
Introductory Note: In today’s economic climate, organizations want to ensure that their tuition programs are run efficiently and cost effectively and, in short, expect to gain more business value from their tuition benefit. EdLink views tuition assistance as an investment in human capital and works with corporations to gain more strategic value from this benefit, helping them to make the critical link from the tuition benefit to the company’s talent management and growth strategies.
We therefore are very excited to include this article from Patti and Jack Phillips, of the ROI Institute, about the overall importance of linking learning to the business. This article was written specifically for this issue of EdLink’s TAPwire, and we are grateful to the esteemed authors.
Business alignment is a critical issue in the learning and development, and performance improvement fields. If business alignment is not achieved, a flawed project or program can result, creating inefficiencies and other problems. This article describes how you can ensure your programs and projects are aligned with your business.
The Basis for Alignment
Most professionals in learning and development field understand the concept of evaluation levels. Our research shows that almost 90% of learning and development professionals, for example, are using this concept which is based in part on Kirkpatrick’s definitions of the levels and our refinement of the definitions of those levels, with the addition of the fifth level, ROI. Click here to read this article.
New Client Announcements:
EdLink continues to grow. We are proud to announce that another large Fortune 500 corporation, this one located in the western part of the US, awarded us the contract to administer its tuition program for the company’s employees in the US, Canada and Puerto Rico.
Webinars and Presentations
Client Forums:
“At EdLink, the feedback of our clients is of utmost importance to us.
This feedback is vital and instrumental in developing the
strategies we set for the future direction of our business.”
- Elizabeth Hibner, Product Management Director, EdLink
“I think that it is a great idea to have joint sessions that include a variety of clients, remarked Barbara Shaffer-Daniel of Verizon. “This EdLink forum allows for collaborative thinking and provides an avenue for everyone to hear the latest and greatest product lineup and to offer up varying perspectives.”
Building on the success of this first event, EdLink will be hosting additional, regular Client Forums to learn more from our clients about how to ensure that EdLink tuition services continue to meet the evolving needs of our clients. The next Client Forum is planned for early Spring 2010.
EdLink is very pleased to announce four new members to our expanding Featured Provider Network of leading colleges and universities:
- California State University (CSU), Monterey Bay
CSU Monterey Bay, as part of the California State University system, is a public university. It offers a variety of bachelor's degrees, master's degrees, and teaching credentials. Please visit the website at www.csumb.edu for more information.
Accreditation:
The university is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC)
About Colloquy:
The partnership with CSU Monterey Bay was formed through Colloquy. Colloquy, part of The Washington Post Company’s education division, supplies domestic and international academic institutions with integrated distance learning services. The Colloquy system provides dedicated teams who apply proprietary feasibility research, marketing, innovative recruiting and retention strategies, curriculum design services, and high-powered technology to deliver end-to-end distance learning systems for universities and colleges around the world. - National American University (NAU)
Founded in 1941, NAU offers flexible associate, bachelors and master’s degree programs designed specifically for working adults, offering courses in traditional, accelerated and distance-learning formats. NAU features Bachelor’s Degree programs in Business, Information Technology, Health Care Management as well as a variety of other career fields. Participants join a community of students also from around the world. NAU has affiliate partnerships with academic entities in many countries such as Bolivia, Greece, India, Japan, Chile, Malaysia, United Arab Emirates, and the Czech Republic, just to name a few. For more information regarding specific degrees, please visit www.nauonline.net.
Accreditation:
NAU is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission and is a member of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. - Polytechnic Institute of New York University
Founded in 1854, NYU-Poly, an affiliate of NYU, is New York City’s most comprehensive school of engineering, technology, applied sciences and research. Rooted in Polytechnic’s 154-year tradition of innovation, invention and entrepreneurship, the school is one of the nation’s oldest private engineering universities. In addition to its main campus at MetroTech Center in downtown Brooklyn, NYU-Poly offers programs at sites throughout the region, including Long Island, Manhattan and Westchester County. Its engineering program will be offered at NYU’s new campus in Abu Dhabi next year. For more information, please visit www.poly.edu/epoly
Accreditation:
The school is accredited by the Middle States Association, with its undergraduate engineering programs accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), its undergraduate computer science programs accredited by the Computer Science Accreditation Board (CSAB), and its undergraduate chemistry program approved by the American Chemical Society (ACS). - University of Phoenix
Formed in 1976, the University of Phoenix today is the largest private university in North America. Students study at more than 200 campus locations in North America, as well as through online programs available in most countries around the world. The university offers degrees at the associate’s, bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral levels. For more information, please visit www.phoenix.edu.
Accreditation:
The university is accredited by the North Central Association of the Higher Learning Commission.
“We are thrilled to partner with EdLink, as the market leader in tuition program administration, as part of its innovative Featured Provider Network for clients. The exciting partnership provides us with an opportunity to collaborate in a meaningful way with leading corporations, providing easy access to enhanced educational benefits for a large number of employees.”
- Craig Radel, Regional Director of Academic Alliances, Apollo Group
Upcoming Events:
Ashford University’s 2010 Thought Leadership Series:
Ashford University is pleased to present the 2010 Thought Leadership Series. The series will consist of a variety of meetings, events, seminars, and symposiums that bring innovation leaders, dynamic speakers, and best selling authors together to share their insights, ideas and best practices with organizational leaders from across the country. In creating this series our desire at Ashford University is to develop a forum that gives thought leaders an opportunity to express their ideas, opinions and perspectives regarding a range of evolving topics and issues. These events will be structured to cover a wide spectrum of needs, challenges, and demands within the areas of Organizational Development, Human Resource, Talent Management, Learning & Development and much more. Click here for more information.
Ideas & Trends | Webinars and Presentations | Featured Provider Network
