Kaplan Launches Boost Year to Offer Affordable Online Gap-Year Program

Welcome to the future of Education. I'm Michael Horne. Delighted to have my two guests today, Megan o' Connor and Katie Blott, to talk about the new launch of Kaplan's Boost by Kaplan. Super exciting offering that I've been really intrigued about for several weeks now, guys. And I'm like, I'm excited that it's out in the public now because I think it's a great opportunity for students that are particularly in the current phase with COVID wreaking so much unpredictable havoc. But in general, I think it's a great program. And so I'm just curious. Let's start it off. Megan, Katie, both of you, I think just describe what Boost by Kaplan is. Let's start there and then we can talk about each of your own personal passion for this. Megan, you want to kick us off?

Sure, yeah. So Boost is an alternative gap year program that's being launched here at Kaplan, and it's a fully online work readiness program. I will say it's not at all like a traditional gap year, which is those programs are largely location or travel based. And we know, based on the state of the world that we're in right now, most students are not going to be able to be doing that next fall. But what it really is is a new way of thinking about an internship. So the program itself gives students the opportunity to reflect on their skills, possible career paths, and then set a plan they'll end up using when they do go on to higher ed. So it's a way for students to take an inflection moment before kicking off their higher ed experience and think a little bit more about what, what do I want to get out of my higher ed education and how can that set me up to succeed professionally?

And Katie, from your perspective, what are the sets of experiences you all have built into the program to make sure students are able to glean that understanding that you just laid out. Megan, of what do I actually want to do with my college experience?

Right, right. Yeah. That's really, for us, the important driver looking at some of the things and what happens to people after post secondary education where there are a lot of regrets or a lot of I wish I had known when. And so that's really what we've been trying to do as we built this program with the experiences we deliver to students, is how do we take those aha moments that come after you're in the workforce for a year or two. And you say, if I had known this, I wouldn't have majored in this. I would have majored in that or I would have taken the opportunity to do these co curricular activities if I had known that it was so important to be able to do creative thinking or time management in the workforce. And so those are the experiences that we're pulling forward. Really the ability for folks, do we call it an inch deep, an inch deep exploration of different career pathways based on their own strengths and interests. So it's very personalized to the student and who they are and what they're interested in and what their inherent strengths seem to be. And then giving them a little bit of an immersive experience in a handful of careers that they give a thumbs up to. So they do some exploration, they decide which ones sound like a good fit for them, and then they get to spend a few weeks really diving into a couple of career pathways, hearing from professionals in the workforce today about what those career paths are like doing work, integrated learning, experiential learning projects with real company, getting feedback from them about how they're doing on those projects and then doing some one on one work with an advisor about charting their path forward. How do I take what I just learned, about what's of interest to me about these career pathways and about most importantly, what I need to get out of my post secondary experience to put myself in the right place to land the right first job and start charting that path so that when they hit the ground in post secondary education, they're really ready to make the most out of that investment.

It makes so much sense. I mean a key finding from my book on this topic, choosing college, obviously was that so many students come in, just have no sense, right of why they're there even to begin with. And then obviously Brandon Bustig, your colleague, has done a ton of research how people regret the choices that they make and so forth. I'm curious, before we get actually into your personal passions behind this, I'm curious, how have you helped recruit? I imagine it's a pretty extensive employer base, I guess, to have these experiences with or to be counseled by professionals in a variety of fields. What does that network, I guess, of employers and individuals look like?

Yeah, I will say that the companies that are joining the BOOST program are actually some of the best you could possibly imagine here domestically. And we'll say that it was a very easy sell to get them to participate, mostly because I think that a lot of different companies know that they want to have wider exposure to like more diverse set of students around what it means to work there because then they're going to End up seeing students be prepared for the first job. You know, a big part of the reason that we started Boost is because both employers were feeling like they weren't seeing graduates who were prepared for the work workforce, and graduates similarly were feeling like, oh, college didn't necessarily prepare me for my first job. And so the BOOST program and socializing students to what it means to work through different career tracks that Katie just mentioned within these companies actually help employers long term, you know, get a great recruitment base of entry level employees down the road.

That's perfect. And it's great to hear that employers have been so enthusiastic about it and seeing the benefit on their end of it. Let's shift a little bit. And by the way, I see people coming in and watching this live. If you have questions, obviously throw them in the comments and I'll do my best to weave them in myself. But I'd love to take a step back for both of you. Just personally, your own passion and inspiration behind this and how it relates to your own journey. I'm indifferent on who goes first. Katie, you want to, Katie, you want to take first step.

I will, I will. So I started off my career in education a year out of college, really getting having an experience that really enlightened and made personal for me how important and impactful higher education is to people and how it's not a given and how it can really change the trajectory of someone's life. And since then I spent a lot of my time on access and affordability and looking at what are things we can do to make high quality education more accessible to everyone. And so to me, the thing I'm most excited about Boost year is it breaks down this time to go off and think and figure out what the right next step for you has been pretty much reserved for upper income people, people who can afford to go on a program abroad because most of them are travel and location based. And so to me, the big thing about BOOST is how do we break that down? How do we create an experience that's affordable for more people and that gives people exposure to companies and potential networks and insights that their socioeconomic status might not give them privilege to today like other people do. So that's what really drives me about it.

That's terrific, Megan.

Yeah, very similarly to Katie, you know, access to education has always been kind of the backbone of my career. I've worked in international education in terms of building schools, training teachers, and building out local ministries of education all throughout the developing world. Most recently I had my own software company called Clark. And we did. We allowed tutors to expand their reach to wider bases of students who needed personalized education. So that's why building Boost was so exciting, because we knew that, you know, the internship experience is one that is affordable to a very few students domestically. And we wanted all students to be able to have that kind of access. And then the cool thing about the Boost program is it's much more than just a traditional internship. You get exposure to a company that you wouldn't as an intern. And that was the type of the, you know, information we wanted to have students of all kinds of diverse backgrounds to have.

No, it's incredible. And it's something that. So let's dive into that affordability and accessibility element of this right now. Because that jumped out to me. Having spent a lot of time looking at gap year programs and other programming before college over the last year, that really jumped out to me in this program. I think it's something like $4,000, which compares, I think, you know, we're talking upwards of 15k plus typically for a curated gap year program. Am I right on those, on those numbers?

You are right.

So just to put that into perspective, like so 4k roughly, to get in this program, what do you expect that's going to change in terms of the accessibility and so forth of the program?

Yeah, I mean, we just think that price point is going to change a lot. The fact that it can be done remotely and so there aren't also extra costs of travel. And we also are working actively on scholarship opportunities. And so we know that it's easy to say 4,000 is certainly more affordable than 15,000 and it's still very out of reach for a lot of people that we want to serve. And so both Kaplan, but also working with some other organizations really focused on student success education leading to workforce readiness, we're going to be working with those organizations to make sure that hopefully we can even extend this to more folks below that price point.

That makes sense. And that price point and then the scholarship opportunities that come in. One of the things that strikes me as being so unique is also something you both said, which is the access to opportunity that people who enroll in this will get is very different from saying even staying local. And like having an internship locally because you're confined to the set of employers that are within some circle, you are connecting them online. Even in a non Covid era, this will be an online program. Right. So this is fundamentally changing that access equation. And it's top employers in all sorts of industries Right, right.

And normally, I mean, those are obviously very competitive programs to get in. A lot of times you have to be somewhat connected to get into the right place. There are limited spots, and if we're, you know, all really open, there's also a lot of implicit bias that happens when you're choosing people for opportunities like that. And so that are not intentional, but we know happen. And so, again, a thing we're really excited about is we're going to break through all those barriers. Right. We're going to give each student in this program the experience, not just with one, but with multiple experiential learning projects with different companies to get the type of exposure that would be very, very difficult for them to get, if not impossible.

Yeah. And the only thing I would add to that is often students who do get the opportunity to do an internship, they're still doing it with, you know, companies that in their own backyard that they can get to. And so that means there's a lot of different companies outside of their coral communities that they don't get exposure to. And we do know there's certain industries that are all geographically close together in different pockets throughout the US and this is a way for students everywhere to get access to that company information.

Yeah, sorry, go ahead, Katie.

I was just going to note we're seeing a real win win. Megan talked earlier about companies being excited about just contributing to to future workforce readiness and expanding their own brand awareness within the upcoming people entering the workforce. But the other thing that we're seeing is there all are small or even large companies out there who would love to get a diverse group of millennials together to give them some input about a problem that they have. And so we really are seeing that win win of they can get people in their own backyard, but they can't necessarily get across us input from potential consumers. And so this is really interesting to them as well.

Yeah. I don't know if Google is one of your employers or not, but I can imagine that they'd be thrilled to get outside of the Silicon Valley bubble, for example, and find someone who doesn't think like technology is going to change the entire world overnight. So the other thing I think that's really interesting about this is you both hit on this, is that industries tend to be regionally focused. I always joke I grew up in Washington, D.C. i literally did not know what an engineer was until junior year of college, by which point that was not an option career wise, because I hadn't done anything to prepare myself for that pathway. So that element of it. How does the program help raise awareness of what those options are for the individual so that they can say, I want this employer, I want this industry, and make those choices that they might not otherwise make without. Without sort of an intentional broadening?

I think the most important part is the step one that students go through in booths, and it's an assessment that helps them understand the skills that they came to the table with, classes that they've liked in the past, interests they've had, how those actually apply to jobs, and how those jobs actually make up careers. And so that's what's really interesting is that a lot of students don't understand, like, they might already be on a pathway towards a certain type of job, they might have already taken classes, they might have already excelled next year that have shown that that's what they're supposed to be, whether it be an engineer or something else within the program. And then I think that the other great thing about Boos and Katie can add to this is just the diversity of different career tracks that we feature. You know, there's lots of formulas out there of how to become a doctor, how to become a lawyer, how to go into finance. Right. We've been following both the higher education, the licensure, the steps that you have to take in order to get into those types of professions. But, you know, new economy skills and the jobs of tomorrow, the jobs that are being hired for today, they don't have transpar pathways of how you get there. And so there's a really diverse set of newer jobs in the world that we're featuring. So that way students can back into how might I get there?

And to your point, Michael, a lot of people haven't heard of these jobs, right? Some of our highest growth jobs are things that people have not heard about. And so how do we give them exposure? And one thing that we're really looking as a pivotal point is we know from an emerging set of research that there's growing anxiety with students today and that people feel anxiety a lot of times for one of two reasons. I feel like I have no path forward. I feel like I have no options, or I feel like I have so many options that I'm paralyzed about how I go forward. Right? So the number of students who pick their major because it was top on the dropdown box or because the person in front of them did it or a friend did it is astounding. Right? You look at those statistics and you can't believe them. And so our goal is really to get People down to a recommended set that can kind of get them out of that paralysis mode and into digestible, but give them freedom to roam around too. And so we won't prescribe anything of you can only go explore these 10, but we're going to get them to a short list to explore and then give them the ability in a very accessible, low hurdle way to go out and explore some other things that connect. The other thing I would say that is very important, as important probably as exploring the jobs, is that we now are getting more and more confident broadly about the professional 22nd century, whatever we want to call them, skills that people need, that they need regardless of what career they're in. You know, these skills like time management, professionalism and work ethic, both critical and creative thinking. And so that's a big focus of the program as well, is introducing people to those skills, giving them a chance to test out those skills in the experiential learning and then again, very importantly, helping them set a plan for how am I going to go to whatever's next. For me, for most people it will be post secondary education with intention around building those skills more fully so that when I graduate I've got them. And I'm not one of the 65% of people saying I didn't feel ready for my first job.

So I'm curious actually on that. Do you anticipate that most of the people who are in the program will already be into a college and have committed to it or and deferring for a year? Or do you think that some of them, you know, they'll reapply or apply for the first time, who knows out of the experience, do you have a sense of how that's going to break down? I know it's something that's very much in the minds of families right now, which we do. Right.

I think we'll have both. And before Global Pandemic, I think I would have said we'll have more people who were uncertain is college for me, which college? I need to take some time to figure it out. I think now that we're seeing more and more people say depending on what the experience looks like in fall, I may elect to defer that. We'll have some more in that first category that you mentioned.

And I will say this is a trend we were already looking at at Kaplan before the pandemic. We were seeing more and more students trying to get tangible skills at an earlier age and trying to figure out what workforce development track they wanted to be on in tandem with their higher ed experience. And so now that that trend, coupled with the fact that like Katie said, many students are feeling like they want to take some time off while they wait for university to go back on campus. I think that we're going to see a lot more students taking this inflection point even as things start to go back to an in person world. And deferment rates might be a trend that we see happening consistently from here on out.

That's interesting. It's something I've said to parents actually as well, which what you just said, Megan, which is, you know, there's been this whole worry of junior parents saying, oh my goodness, is there going to be just an onslaught if all these people defer next year, then it's going to be really hard for my kid to get into the desired school and so forth. And it said, and I was sort of thinking, to your point, actually, everyone deferring more and gaining this experience so that they can better use their higher ed experience and have fewer regrets around it would probably be a good trend regardless of what happens amidst the pandemic.

Absolutely. That I could have done as well. When I think about the ROI in your college experience, had I spent some intentional time ahead of time, I could have gotten a lot more out of it and probably changed a lot of the courses that I selected as well. Yeah.

My oldest son is 12 and I already talked to him about what he's going to do in his year between high school and college.

So you're starting a conversation early.

That's a good thing.

Well, so I'm curious because. So that might be actually an interesting jumping point for this, which probably puts you both in the realm of speculation, I think. But are you contemplating partnerships with colleges for this to be an experience that they offer actually as the entry point into college? Maybe the first semester is actually they do boost by Kaplan. Maybe they take one or two classes online, get a little credit as well. What would that look like?

Yeah, we are exploring that and I will say we have seen some interest. The great thing about Kaplan is we've partnered with universities since the beginning of the company and that's something that we're really proud of is the relationships that we do have with leading universities and colleges. But yes, you know, I think universities were seeing this trend. They were hearing the same stats that Katie and I mentioned at the onset of the call and thinking about how they could do more work readiness training at the beginning. I think that freshman seminar at some universities was really fantastic and includes a lot of the themes that we've been talking about. But in terms of getting this engagement with real world companies and having it be so expansive, it's something that they can really get out of partnership with us and doing it through, through the BOOST program. So future iterations of Boost, we definitely forecast will be in partnership with some leading universities.

That's terrific. Sorry, you were going to jump in, Katie.

I was going to say, I think you raised a good point about Ann taking a couple classes. We have designed this program such that it's about 20 hours a week. And so it does afford students the ability then to do this career exploration, participate in Boost and work part time if that's what they want to do, take a couple online classes to get a jump start on their credits. And we're going to be announcing some partnerships with schools who, who are going to. It's going to be easy for folks to sign up for a handful of online courses with them or to do volunteer work. You know, we know there's a big calling right now with everything going on in the world. People want to make a difference. And so people could do this and do some local or virtual volunteer opportunities.

Yeah, yeah. I think this is the perfect opportunity for that, honestly, for this generation to sort of figure out how they can contribute and get a bigger sense of self in society. Right. And this program exploring yourself and then to your point, volunteering for some period of time or working, which makes it even more accessible, honestly. And it's more accessible, honestly, than a first year of college because you're earning money and paying something much smaller than most students would be paying if they went to a traditional four year college anyway.

Exactly.

So I guess the last question that I'm curious about is, you know, we come out of this pandemic, you are now one other program that has the opportunity to make this more mainstream. What do you hope the ultimate impact of the program is both on the students you serve individually? You know, what do you hope five years from now they'll be able to say about why this is important? What's that narrative in their mind and more broadly, how does this change the narrative across the sector? I think, and hopefully obliterate the phrase gap year, because that implies a gap as opposed to this is a year on purpose is what I'm hearing, to boost you and so it actually could become ingrained. How does that all play out? Those two narratives in both your minds play out?

Yeah, well, we definitely believe that it is a year on. So you're totally right in saying that and we were doing the research in the early days around gap years. You know, there is this connotation that it's, you know, for students who aren't sure what they're going to want to do and it's going to slow them down. And this is the complete opposite. It's going to speed you up in terms of your long term career success. I think what I will say, and maybe Katie can speak to this as well, is, you know, for companies, I'm hoping that the long term trend we're going to see is that they're going to provide a lot more information and access for a diverse program pool of future candidates of here's how you get here and whether that means, you know, partnering with us. So that way we can be sharing the skills that students need to have in order to be successful there. Also sharing more transparently, you know, what 1 plus 2 plus 3 equals within different career tracks. Internally, I think that we're going to see that different companies really care about diversity, inclusion. In order to do that, they have to provide the information to the market of how you get here. For students, certainly long term, we hope that this helps them think about higher ed. As you know, it's got many different purposes, some of them being social and emotional, but a lot of them also being in terms of tangible skill collection. And we're hoping that students can start to think less about grades and more around like, here's the skills I've collected along the way, here's the things I know how to do, here's what that means in terms of careers and you know, be in pursuit of not just GPAs, but be in pursuit of a diverse set of skills.

That makes a ton of sense.

Yeah. And I would say, I mean, definitely what we want is we want students saying, I entered college and I wasn't unsure. I didn't enter saying, I don't know. You know, I entered with a great deal of confidence. And that doesn't mean I might not still change my major, but that I entered, I kind of had a path. And then maybe even most importantly, that one of the things they'll leave Booth with is this ability to reflect on experiences they've had and how that shapes their vision of their future self. So nobody's going to go through Boost and have it all locked down, but they're going to have both an idea that sets them on a path and they're going to have the ability, once they experience that, next thing, another apprenticeship, a year's worth of engineering courses, and they'll have the ability to reflect on that and say, what did I learn now? Am I growing that key skill, or am I realizing that maybe that's not a core strength of mine and I should shift? And so that's what I hope students get out of it, is that they're feeling much more confident, not just in a potential path forward, but also in how they themselves can take control about how they adapt that path based on new learnings across their life.

Yeah, I think in some good news, they were playing the Oprah Winfrey advice about how failure is actually an opportunity to change direction. Right. And so that I think that that resonates with what you just said there.

Right. And I think if they've been exposed to more, also, very sadly, people hit failure, especially in our education system, and think that everything they've done until that point, especially if you've already declared a major, is lost. Now I've just lost two years of my life and 80 or $100,000 and I have no path forward. Students who have gone through boost are going to know that the things that they've already done apply to a multitude of potential pathways for them and that that isn't sunk cost at all, that they are on one of many paths that they can be on. And I hope that that changes that for a lot of people.

I think that's an incredible place to leave it with a note of optimism for what it will allow students to do as they explore paths and prototype their futures. And put the link there again at the bottom. Check it out. Booth by Kaplan. Judging by the comments, people are pretty excited about this new addition into the higher ed landscape. And so just huge thanks to you both, Megan and Katie, for helping launch this at Kaplan and appreciate it. We'll keep an eye on how it continues to do. Thanks so much.

Great.

Thanks for having us.