Penn Foster Career School is a U.S. for-profit, regionally and nationally-accredited

distance education Distance education, also known as distance learning, is the education of students who may not always be physically present at a school, or where the learner and the teacher are separated in both time and distance. Traditionally, this usually in ...

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 Scranton is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Lackawanna County. With a population of 76,328 as of the 2020 U.S. census, Scranton is the largest city in Northeastern Pennsylvania, the Wyoming V ...

History

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 Moral and national education (MNE), initially known as Moral and civic education (MCE), was a school curriculum proposed by the Education Bureau of Hong Kong in 2012. The subject was controversial for its stance on the Chinese Communist Part ...

in 1979.

Harcourt General Harcourt () was an American publishing firm with a long history of publishing fiction and nonfiction for adults and children. The company was last based in San Diego, California, with editorial/sales/marketing/rights offices in New York City an ...

acquired National Education in 1997.

Reed Elsevier RELX plc (pronounced "Rel-ex") is a British multinational information and analytics company headquartered in London, England. Its businesses provide scientific, technical and medical information and analytics; legal information and analytics; ...

acquired Harcourt in 2001 and divested its higher education unit to

Thomson Corporation The Thomson Corporation was one of the world's largest information companies. It was established in 1989 following a merger between International Thomson Organisation Ltd (ITOL) and Thomson Newspapers. In 2008, it purchased Reuters Group to fo ...

. ICS was renamed Penn Foster in 2005. Wicks Group, a private equity firm, purchased the school from

in 2007. In December 2009, Penn Foster Career School was purchased by test preparation and educational support company

The Princeton Review The Princeton Review is an education services company providing tutoring, test preparation and admission resources for students. It was founded in 1981. and since that time has worked with over 400 million students. Services are delivered by 4,0 ...

, 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. In 2013, Education Holdings 1 filed for bankruptcy; it exited two months later. In 2014 Vistria Group, led by

Martin Nesbitt Martin Hughes Nesbitt (born November 29, 1962) is an American businessman and public figure. Nesbit is co-CEO of the Vistria Group, a Chicago-based private equity firm. Nesbitt is on the boards of directors of publicly traded companies CenterPo ...

, acquired Penn Foster. In December 2015, Penn Foster acquired a

competency-based learning Competency-based learning or competency-based education is a framework for teaching and assessment of learning. It is also described as a type of education based on predetermined "competencies," which focuses on outcomes and real-world performance ...

platform built by UniversityNow.

Bain Capital Bain Capital is an American private investment firm based in Boston. It specializes in private equity, venture capital, credit, public equity, impact investing, life sciences, and real estate. Bain Capital invests across a range of industry se ...

purchased Penn Foster in 2018."Bain Capital to Buy Penn Foster, a Workforce-Skills Provider That Dates Back to Late 1800s"
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References

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External links

Official Site
American companies established in 1890 1890 establishments in Pennsylvania Distance education institutions based in the United States Distance Education Accreditation Commission

History

See also

References

External links