Professional Learning EvaluationsValidating Workplace Training as an Onrampto College Credentials

Donna M. DesrochersMary Ann Osiecka

CASE STUDY

February 2021

Professional Learning EvaluationsValidating Workplace Training as an Onramp toCollege Credentials

SUNY Empire State College partnered with several employers, including CVS Health, in 2019 to conduct evaluations of college-levelworkplace learning that is offered for select career pathways at those companies. These Professional Learning Evaluations (PLEs)examine the competencies workers must demonstrate to successfully complete their workplace education and training programs. SUNYEmpire translates the competencies learned through these programs into equivalent academic credits and courses. Employees whodecide to enroll at the college can then apply those credits towards a certificate or degree program, or affiliated micro-credential. SUNYEmpire’s approach combines well-established methods for evaluating formal training offered in classrooms or online, with newapproaches that evaluate competencies acquired through on-the-job training (OJT).

Motivation and Objective

For years, SUNY Empire has worked with employers toevaluate their formal training programs through itsemployer partnership program. Traditionally,employees who successfully completed theseformal workplace education and training programs,and then enrolled at the college, would earn academiccredit based on SUNY Empire’s PLE recommendations.However, as industry training approaches shifted toincorporate more informal on-the-job training (OJT),these partnerships began to require new approachesto capture that learning.

Initially, SUNY Empire asked students to completeindividualized portfolios as a way to evaluatecompetencies learned through OJT. Over time, theseportfolios confirmed that many of the competenciesstudents learn in college could be acquired throughOJT. Since portfolios are often time-consuming andcostly for employees and the college, eligible informalcollege-level learning is not always transferred intocollege credits and credentials.

Recognition of Non-institutionalLearning (RNL)

Initiative Partners

SUNY Empire State College is part of the StateUniversity of New York (SUNY) and provides servicesto 10,000 students, of which more than 90% areundergraduate students, across 34 educationalcenters in the state of New York, with a strong focuson adult learners.

CVS Health is one of the largest retail pharmacychains in the United States, with 300,000 employees,9,900 stores, and 1,100 walk-in clinics in the Americas.

The initiative also includes three organizations engaged ina similar approach as featured for CVS Health:

The Golub Corporation operates around 135supermarkets under various brands in the Northeast.

Fort Drum is a U.S. Army reserve located in northernNew York state at which SUNY Empire has a location.

The NY State Commission of the Blind provideslegally blind New York State residents with vocationalrehabilitation and other services.

This case study is a part of a series that examines the business models behind new ‘recognition of non-institutional learning’ initiatives.These initiatives are designed to validate learning that occurs in non-college settings, and these studies illustrate the potential return oninvestment and sustainability of these initiatives.

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SUNY Empire is beginning to shift its evaluation ofworkplace OJT directly to the training program. This shift is expected to streamline the creditrecognition process and reduce administrative effortsto validate learning.

SUNY Empire’s corporate partners indicated they aremotivated to participate in these PLE programs toimprove both educational and workplaceopportunities for their employees and communities.They want to leverage existing investments in theireducation and training programs, while cultivatingnew ways to develop their workforce, retain workers,and increase employee access to new roles within thecompany. Companies that initiate a PLE can alsoreduce the time and cost employees must devote topursuing postsecondary credentials.

Solution

SUNY Empire is working with four organizations—CVSHealth, Golub Corporation, Fort Drum, and the NYState Commission of the Blind—to expand on itsexisting PLE work by developing a competency-basedevaluation of on-the-job training. College-levelcompetencies learned in the workplace are translatedinto academic credits towards postsecondarycredentials, including micro-credentials embeddedwithin degree pathways. SUNY Empire piloted its newapproach with CVS Health, and the remainder of thiscase study will focus on that partnership and process.

SUNY Empire relies on various sources to identifycompanies interested in PLEs. Industry leads can comefrom existing campus partnerships, alumniconnections, faculty working collaborations, andemployer networking. After an alumna encouragedCVS Health to approach SUNY Empire, they workedtogether to develop and pilot a new competency-based PLE program to evaluate CVS Health’s StoreManager in Training (SMIT) program. Upon successfulcompletion of the pilot, they proceeded with twoadditional evaluations for Shift Supervisor andPharmacy Technician training.

CVS Health indicated that they pursued thepartnership to demonstrate the importance theircompany places on the time and effort employeesinvest in training. It also allows CVS Health to give back to the communities it serves, through workforcedevelopment and by opening training tononemployees serving in the military.

All of SUNY Empire’s PLEs are approved in advance bythe Provost. The college’s Center for Leadership inCredentialing Learning then forms an academic reviewteam which conducts an initial meeting with thecompany. The team reviews and assesses the coursematerials, instructor materials, assessments, andgrading or evaluation rubrics provided by thecompany. The team also typically conducts an on-sitevisit to assess learning activities and delivery.

For the Store Manager in Training (SMIT) Program,traditional evaluation methods that comparecurriculum and learning objectives were used toevaluate the formal training administered online.The evaluation of the on-the-job portion of the trainingutilized a rubric that store managers use to evaluateemployee competencies.

This OJT approach relies upon employer assessmentsof their workers’ competencies. The academic reviewteam used the internally developed Global LearningQualifications Framework (GLQF) and the nationalConnecting Credentials Framework to determinewhether CVS Health SMIT participants gained theappropriate store manager skills and knowledge.

The academic review team recommended that SMITcompleters earn 32 college credits, while the StoreSupervisor training recommendation was five credits.SUNY Empire provides the partner companies with thefinal credit recommendation, conducts a follow-upmeeting, and compiles a final report.

A PLE typically requires about four months to completeonce the college has received the review materials.SUNY Empire re-reviews the recommendations everyfive years; companies are required to notify SUNYEmpire if any changes are made to the training in the interim.

As part of this process, the academic review teambuilds a sample degree pathway for each PLE review.They map the PLE credits to the college’s area of studyguidelines, which outline the competencies all studentsneed to meet. For example, the team created a flexiblebusiness management bachelor’s degree using the 32credits from the SMIT evaluation as the core with theremaining degree requirements built around it.

Additional studies are available at rpkgroup.com/creating-sustainable-student-success.This project was supported by Lumina Foundation.

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Implementation

Students at SUNY Empire can also design their owndegrees, which may vary based on additional priorlearning and previous college experiences.

Additionally, the college is developing topical micro-credentials (e.g., a human resources micro-credential)that students may earn along a degree pathway.

Business Model

To avoid potential conflicts of interest around creditrecommendations, the PLE process is free for partnercompanies. Students can obtain PLE academic credit atno cost or risk, making it less expensive than bothtraditional courses and the portfolio review process(previously used for OJT training) which assesses a$700 fee. CVS Health also provides its employees with$1,500 in tuition assistance, including course materials,further reducing employees’ college costs.

In 2020-21, SUNY Empire’s in-state tuition andmandatory fees totaled $305 per credit hour. Studentsearning 32 credit hours from the CVS Health SMIT PLEwould save $9,760, while the five credits from the StoreSupervisor PLE would save students $1,525.

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The viability of the PLE model depends on enrollingcurrent or former employees from partner companies.The college anticipates a total of 25 students from theCVS Health SMIT and Staff Supervisor workplacetraining programs will enroll during the first yearacademic credit is available. Enrollment is expected togrow by 15% annually, adding five new studentseach year.

As of spring 2020, 15 training participants expressedinterest in degree opportunities available at SUNY,while one student registered but did not enroll in adegree program. CVS Health indicated many workerswere working long hours because of the Covid-19pandemic, which may have limited their capacity toattend college during this time.

SUNY Empire asks its partners to assist in marketingefforts by informing their employees about theprogram and helping their employees understand PLE.CVS Health shares the information with employees,promotes the partnership, and connects interestedindividuals with appropriate contacts at SUNY Empire.As the program launched, CVS Health held a series ofinformational meetings to provide information andgather feedback on the program and the messagingaround it.

Some companies require all workers in certainpositions to participate in their training (e.g., storemanagers at CVS Health), which provides a steadysource of potential new college students. Currentand former training participants remain eligible forSUNY credits as long as the training program has notchanged since it was evaluated. Other prospectiveSUNY Empire undergraduates learn about PLE credit opportunities through the college website and information sessions, admissions processprompts, orientation, and the required EducationalPlanning Course.

SUNY Empire’s business model benefits from its deepexperience with PLE. It has developed a standardizedevaluation process with well-defined staff time andcosts for various PLE activities. As a result, PLE costsare similar across companies and positions. Thecollege typically evaluates training for several different positions at a company, although each isconducted separately.

The direct PLE development costs for both the CVSHealth SMIT and Staff Supervisor training areestimated at about $3,000 each; the direct cost for thefinal Pharmacy Tech PLE is expected to be similar. Afterindirect institutional costs are factored in, such ascollege supported personnel, marketing, and otheroperating costs, the overall investment is closer to$37,000 for the initial PLE and $33,000 for eachadditional evaluation at the same company.

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Start-up costs account for nearly all resourcesrequired for a Professional Learning Evaluation. Each faculty team member receives a stipend ofapproximately $500 for the 26 hours budgeted towardthe PLE process and creation of the degree pathway.The largest PLE expense, however, is the compensationcosts for project coordination, management, andadministrative support. Other compensation costsinclude oversight and approval by senior administratorsand adoption of the credit recommendation by theRegistrar’s office.

Compensation accounts for about three-quarters of allstart-up expenses. Stipends and operating expenses(travel, meeting, and marketing materials) eachseparately account for about 11% to 13% of expenses. The time and expense that CVS Health devoted to theproject—project engagement, transmittal of trainingmaterials, communication and recruitment, pilotfeedback information sessions, and staff time fortraining while not in stores—are excluded becausethese are not costs that colleges looking to developthese types of programs will incur. Ongoing costs for PLE are intermittent. Once a PLEcredit recommendation is complete, the only additionalprogram costs over the next four years are modestmarketing expenses. Every five years thereafter, thecollege re-evaluates the workplace training using asimilar approach to the initial evaluation, at about 80%of the initial cost.

At SUNY Empire, external grants usually fundexperimental work. Grant funding is supporting most ofthe work to expand competency-based on-the-jobtraining PLE opportunities described in this case study.

However, the Center for Leadership in CredentialingLearning, which leads the PLE work, receives budgetedinstitutional support. These general funds, which alsosupport the Director’s position, are used for the PLEprocess (at a cost to the college) and recouped later through increases in tuition revenue from new students.

Generating ROI for the Initiative

SUNY Empire expects that students who take advantageof these workplace PLE opportunities would nototherwise have enrolled at the college. The increases instudent tuition, mandatory fees and additional stateappropriations associated with these new studentsproduces the return on investment (ROI).

Even with modest initial enrollments, PLE programs are expected to be profitable in the first year ofoperation because all costs are front-loaded in thestart-up year prior to student enrollment. Whenaccounting for the initial start-up investment, both theSMIT and Store Supervisor PLEs are projected torecoup their initial investment by at least the secondyear of operation at anticipated enrollment levels.SUNY Empire would need to enroll 20 students a year inthe SMIT bachelor’s degree pathway to recoup its initialinvestment; the Shift Supervisor would only need toenroll eight students.

The timing and magnitude of the financial margindepends on the number of PLE credits awarded, thenumber of additional transfer credits, and the typeof credential. The college’s financial margin will besmaller for programs that award more PLE credits (e.g.,the SMIT) because students need to complete fewercredits to earn their degrees.

Even though the average SUNY Empire student bringsalmost two years of transfer and prior learning creditwhen enrolling, students earning PLE credits towardstheir bachelor’s degrees are still projected to enroll inenough courses to generate a positive financial margin.Programs leading to associate degrees or certificatesmay require longer to recoup the startup investmentsince these programs require fewer total credit hoursthan bachelor’s degrees.

The SUNY Empire PLE approach can be financiallybeneficial to both the college and its students. A narrowcomparison between the financial value of creditsawarded versus credit earned (excluding PLE programcosts) shows that PLE programs providing greatersavings to students generally provide a smallerfinancial benefit to the college.

For example, the revenue from the Shift Supervisor PLEis expected to exceed revenue the college “lost” fromawarding the five PLE credits.

1 The return on investment includes the gross revenue from enrollment- and retention-related tuition and fees, less direct initiative expenses andadditional instructional costs associated with enrollment and retention.

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The SUNY Empire PLE approachcan be financially beneficial toboth the college and its students.

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Revenue from the SMIT students, however, is notexpected to offset forgone revenue from the 32 credithours students are awarded in addition to their transfercredits. (Nevertheless, the ROI can still be positive whenthat revenue exceeds the program costs).

PLE models shift the evaluation of student learning frompostsecondary institutions to companies; this approachrelies heavily on trusting companies to evaluateindividual learning. Using competencies to evaluate OJTprograms expands opportunities to work withcompanies that may not have formal training programs.Colleges must be confident in their partners’ oversightand verification of employee training, and acknowledgethat managers are incentivized to fairly assess workers’skills so they have well-qualified employees.

As a result, part of the PLE review process includes anevaluation of partners’ assessment processes ofindividual learning, their methods for verifying andtracking gained competencies, and general oversight of OJT procedures. Clearly defining roles andresponsibilities within the partnership is essential toensure all parties understand each other’s function andare coherently working towards common goals.

4) Industry-developed competencies often align withcollege learning expectations, potentially drivingnew efficiencies in higher education.

The PLE model leans heavily on competency-basedtrainings previously developed by the industry. Collegesand universities can expand credit for prior learningopportunities by recognizing that this work—establishing competencies and evaluating studentlearning—does not need to be redone by highereducation to ensure it is valid. Leveraging industry-developed competencies by mapping them tocompetencies in higher education can save studentstime and money, while also helping colleges to reduceduplicative instructional activity (e.g., reducing sectionsof a course) and redirect their resources elsewhere.

A Professional Learning Evaluation (PLE) model thatrecognizes and validates prior learning for competency-based on-the-job training can provide students with away to improve their educational opportunities andemployment options. Such an approach can befinancially beneficial to colleges and universities, as well,by enrolling adult workers with prior training whootherwise may not pursue higher education.

Key Takeaways

1) Evaluating training programs—instead of theirparticipants—reduces ongoing program costs andpressure to rapidly scale enrollment.

By evaluating company-based training programsinstead of students, the PLE business model requireslittle additional cost beyond the initial investment. Thismodel lessens the pressure around scaling enrollment tocover annual operating costs, but companies andcolleges still have an obligation to recruit and enrollstudents to provide a financial 'payback' on the initialinvestment. Since SUNY Empire’s PLE development costsare similar across companies and programs, the perstudent program cost depends heavily on the number ofstudents that matriculate from each of the corporatepartners’ training programs.

2) Routine evaluation processes can lead tostandardized PLE development costs—meaning financial margins are maximized by other determinants.

With multiple PLEs conducted over time, the collegedeveloped strong industry partnerships across sectors.This enables the college to leverage efficiencies with newpartners and pathways, resulting in a standardizedevaluation process. Applying this process to diversecontent areas within and across companies stillproduces custom results for each workplace trainingprogram. Flexibility remains important, because ofdifferences in programs and companies.

With similar PLE development costs across partners, thefinancial margin for each PLE program depends onfactors other than cost, including: the length ofdegree/certificate program; the number of PLE creditsavailable; the number of transfer credits students bringwith them; the number of students that enroll, and theirpersistence rates and patterns.

3) Competencies are the key to credentialingdifferent kinds of industry-provided training—buttrust between higher education and industry isalso critical.

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