Penn Foster Career School

Penn Foster Career School
Address
200 Hickory Street

Scranton
,
Pennsylvania
18505

United States
Information
TypePrivate vocational school, Distance education
Established1890
EnrollmentApprox. 140,000
AccreditationRegional: Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools
National: Distance Education Accrediting Commission (DEAC)
WebsiteOfficial Site

Penn Foster Career School is a U.S. for-profit,[1] regionally and nationally-accredited[2][3] distance education school offering career diploma programs and certificate programs. It was founded in 1890 as International Correspondence Schools, or ICS. Penn Foster is headquartered in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

History

Advertisement for International Correspondence Schools in the 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition guidebook.

In 1890, Thomas J. Foster, a newspaper editor, founded the school to provide coal miners with education needed to advance in their careers and improve worker safety. At the turn of the century, the school was officially known as the International Correspondence Schools (ICS), and one out of every 27 adults in the U.S. had taken an ICS course. In 1904, Foster expanded his school to the UK; this is now a separate distance education school called ICS Learn.

ICS parent company Intext was acquired by National Education in 1979.[4]

ICS became known in the 1980s for its ubiquitous television commercials featuring celebrity spokesperson Sally Struthers, a long recited list of career-skills choices, and the catchphrase "Do you want to make more money? Sure, we all do!"[5][6][7][8]

Harcourt General acquired National Education in 1997.[9] Reed Elsevier acquired Harcourt in 2001 and divested its higher education unit to Thomson Corporation.[10]

ICS was renamed Penn Foster in 2005.[11] Wicks Group, a private equity firm, purchased the school from Thomson Corporation in 2007.[12] In December 2009, Penn Foster Career School was purchased by test preparation and educational support company The Princeton Review, and in 2012 the Princeton Review brand name and operations were bought for $33 million by Charlesbank Capital Partners, a private-equity firm. The parent company was renamed Education Holdings 1, Inc.[13] In 2013, Education Holdings 1 filed for bankruptcy; it exited two months later.[14][15] In 2014 Vistria Group, led by Martin Nesbitt, acquired Penn Foster.[16][17]

In December 2015, Penn Foster acquired a competency-based learning platform built by UniversityNow.[18]

Bain Capital purchased Penn Foster in 2018.[19]

See also

References

  1. ^ "BBB Business Review: Penn Foster Career School". BBB serving Metro Washington DC & Eastern Pennsylvania. Better Business Bureau. Retrieved 27 September 2014.
  2. ^ "Penn Foster Career School DEAC Accreditation". Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-06-14.
  3. ^ "PA Dept of Education Institution Program Search". Archived from the original on 2008-05-11. Retrieved 2008-12-27.
  4. ^ "Company News". The New York Times. 8 August 1979.
  5. ^ https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/see-family-star-sally-struthers-150334877.html [bare URL]
  6. ^ "Bain Capital to Buy Penn Foster, a Workforce-Skills Provider That Dates Back to Late 1800s - EdSurge News". 2 May 2018.
  7. ^ https://boingboing.net/2018/05/02/trade-school-infomercials-of-t.html [bare URL]
  8. ^ "VCR Repair and other terrible careers Sally Struthers peddled in the 90s".
  9. ^ Carvajal, Doreen (1997-05-14). "Harcourt General, Not Sylvan, To Acquire National Education". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-10-14.
  10. ^ "The Thomson Corporation to Acquire Select Harcourt Business Units From Reed Elsevier". Business Wire. New York, United States. October 27, 2000. p. 1. ProQuest 445856898.
  11. ^ Anonymous (2007-08-07). "After 117 Years, One of the World's Largest Distance Education Institutions Finds a New Name, a New Mission and a New Owner: Renamed as Penn Foster, this one-time correspondence school giant, has evolved into a global online education provider.; Today one out of every 1,410 Americans is actively enrolled in a Penn Foster program - and there are plans for more". PR Newswire; New York. New York, United States, New York. ProQuest 447136623.
  12. ^ Falchek, David (2007-04-11). "Thomson Education Direct sold". The Times - Tribune; Scranton, Pa. Scranton, Pa., United States, Scranton, Pa. pp. –1. ISSN 1062-5844. ProQuest 275796478.
  13. ^ "Princeton Review to sell test prep business name". Associated Press. 27 March 2012. Retrieved 17 October 2013.
  14. ^ Penn Foster parent seeks bankruptcy protection
  15. ^ Ex-Princeton Review Owner Wins OK For Ch. 11 Exit Plan
  16. ^ "The Vistria Group Acquires Penn Foster Education Group". /mergr.com. Retrieved 7 April 2021.
  17. ^ "THE VISTRIA GROUP: A NEW APPROACH TO DOING WELL BY DOING GOOD" (PDF). Vistria Group. Retrieved 7 April 2021.
  18. ^ "Nonprofit University Buys For-Profit College's Tech Platform - EdSurge News". 9 July 2018.
  19. ^ "Bain Capital to Buy Penn Foster, a Workforce-Skills Provider That Dates Back to Late 1800s"