University of Phoenix and ManpowerGroup (Manpower), the employment agency dedicated to enriching people’s lives with meaningful employment and development opportunities for more than 60 years, have issued a case study highlighting their academic alliance as a successful collaboration on an upskilling program. The case study provides a closer look at University of Phoenix’s alliance with Manpower on the shared efforts to support Manpower associates in gaining new skills and expanding career opportunities.
“The labor market continues to lean on the effectiveness of data-informed approaches to identifying and addressing skills gaps in the workforce,” states Jay Titus, vice president and general manager of Workforce Solutions Group at University of Phoenix. “We are impressed with Manpower’s dedication to identifying and addressing skill and career opportunities for their associates, and we are proud of how our highly collaborative approach to helping address talent skills gaps has been effective for them.”
According to a 2023 study conducted by Manpower, global talent shortages reached a 15-year high with 75% of U.S. employers reporting difficulty finding appropriately skilled talent. And findings from the University of Phoenix Career Institute® Career Optimism Index® point to the opportunity for employers to invest in skilling with 70% of American workers indicating they would be more likely to stay with their employer if their company gave them more opportunities to apply new skills.
University of Phoenix Workforce Solutions Group offers companies across diverse industries as well as community colleges tailored learning and career pathways to recruit, upskill, reskill, and retain their workforce in an affordable and timely manner. Their flexible solutions are aligned to workplace needs and feature live support, career guidance and support tools, education programs, learning pathways, and credit options, including certificates, workshops, single courses, degree programs, or any combination of these tools.
The case study shares insights on this approach to workforce development through the Manpower Acceleration Program, designed in a collaborative approach in which University of Phoenix created short, skill-focused classes that prepared Manpower associates to pursue career opportunities. Graduates from the program receive certificates of achievement and one college credit that can be applied to a University of Phoenix degree. More than 2,500 Manpower associates have completed courses in accounts receivable/payable, contact center/customer service, contact center team leadership, help desk, human resources, project management, and warehouse/production leadership. Participants can pursue a degree in business, health care, technology, criminal justice, human services, communications or sciences.
“Our MyPath program was built to help our Associates reach for new and meaningful opportunities in their career progression,” stated Nimo Shah, Director, MyPath ManpowerGroup. “Our team worked closely with University of Phoenix to create this talent development solution, and we are pleased to share more on how this defined a successful pathway for our Associates to gain new skills.”
The alliance was recently recognized with the 2023 Chief Learning Officer (CLO) Learning in Practice Award in the category, Excellence in Academic Partnerships. The CLO Learning in Practice Awards honor learning and development leaders for their work in designing and delivering exemplary employee development programs.
University of Phoenix’s commitment to career-minded learning is evident through its innovative skills-tagged curriculum and digital badging model to meet working adult learners’ need to demonstrate skills attainment for workplace relevancy. The University has issued over 450,000 badges since September 2021, for skills obtained in undergraduate, graduate, and professional development courses. Currently, 100% of the University’s associate, bachelor’s and master’s programs open for new enrollment are now skills mapped.
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