Rethinking the College Pipeline: Leading University Gains Youth Badging Platform

Imagine anywhere anytime community-connected learning that contributes toward a college degree. The merger of LRNG and SNHU makes that possibility a reality.

LRNG extends learning opportunities to young people and provides digital badges that allows them to communicate their new capabilities.

Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) operates the largest nonprofit online college. Their innovative and affordable programs extend educational access to youth and working adults.

Last week the nonprofits merged to combine their capabilities. The combination will allow LRNG to expand their innovative community-based education strategy in cities across the U.S.

SNHU demonstrated its interest in reaching out to historically underserved high school populations by supporting dual enrollment programs including Match Education in Boston, Big Picture in Providence, and DaVinci Schools in Los Angeles. With 40,000 young people engaged in cities across the country, LRNG adds a big footprint and expands SNHU’s outreach to high school students.

LRNG has been adding playlists of workforce content including Swift coding for Apple iOS. The merger will accelerate the development of workforce learning solutions—easy and free access to opportunity to learn job-ready skills and earn college credit at the same time.

The merger will be a big advance for badges by creating a widely recognized standard for recognizing new capabilities and turning a stack of badges into college credit.

Together, LRNG and SNHU will extend college credit opportunities for thousands of youth nationwide and create workforce solutions for cities and employers.

Many have talked about “city as classroom”, but this new combination will extend learning experiences and credit opportunities in ways that will help us all reimagine learning and pathways to employment.

For more, see:

• New Merger Brings Learning and Workforce Solution for Cities Across the U.S.
• Getting Smart Podcast | Accessible, Affordable, Achievable HigherEd for Working Adults
• Powerful Learning Experiences: Why All Students Deserve Access

This post was originally published on Forbes.

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