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Ad Astra and Emsi Team Up to Help Colleges and Universities Connect Real-Time Workforce Data to Course SchedulingOVERLAND PARK, Kan., Oct. 15, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Ad Astra, the developer of popular scheduling solutions now used by over 500 colleges and universities, today announced a new partnership with labor market analytics company Emsi. The partnership provides labor market insights to Ad Astra institutions through its professional services, enabling campuses to inform course scheduling with labor market data. By informing course scheduling decisions with Emsi's labor market data, colleges and universities will have unprecedented capabilities to ensure that they are offering courses that prepare students for in-demand careers. The new partnership builds on the results of a groundbreaking pilot within the Virginia Community College System, which gave colleges real-time insights into how in-demand labor market skills identified by Emsi's software aligned to course and degree offerings. "This is about creating a direct link between the courses we offer and the demands of our local employers," said Sharon Morrisey, Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic and Workforce Programs of the Virginia Community College System. "Now, we have the potential to integrate academic affairs with workforce development in ways that enable institutions to align academic pathways with in-demand career pathways." "Too often, higher education institutions must rely on historical data as they create schedules and pathways to help students achieve their educational and subsequent career goals," said John Barnshaw, Vice President of Research and Data Science at Ad Astra. "This collaboration changes that, making it possible for institutions to more easily use real-time information they need to provide better pathways and guidance. The schedule can now be used as a tool to improve not just graduation rates, but also workforce outcomes." By adding labor market information to Ad Astra's data points, institutions can better track in real-time how students are progressing on their academic plan toward completion and improve their strategies for assisting students in terms of career readiness. "Applying our labor market data to course scheduling is an innovative approach to positively impacting student success," said Rob Sentz, Emsi's Chief Innovation Offier. "Making it easier to put labor market data at the point of decision is at the heart of this partnership." Through the pilot, John Tyler Community College, located near Richmond, Virginia, received real-time insights on how in-demand courses aligned with needs in the local labor market. Program administrators were able to see where there might be opportunities to improve course offerings. "By better understanding current and future workforce data, we can create a better-sequenced pathway that meets expected employer demand," said Bill Fiege, Vice President of Learning and Student Success at John Tyler Community College. "This new collaboration allows our college to create career pathways that truly align courses and skills with the expected future jobs, while also forming better scheduling pathways that graduate more students on-time." About Ad Astra About Emsi Press Package View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ad-astra-and-emsi-team-up-to-help-colleges-and-universities-connect-real-time-workforce-data-to-course-scheduling-300938546.html SOURCE Ad Astra |