−13%
US high-school graduates
The class of 2025 was the peak. The pool contracts through 2041.
A briefing for university leadershipNew times. New methods.
New times. New methods.
New enrollments.
Make it the first. When a learner builds career capability in your institution's name before they ever apply, enrollment stops being a pitch and becomes a continuation.
Matched cohorts · Metrics agreed in writing · Your data, your read · No leap of faith
- Learners engaged
0K+
Learners engaged
- Countries reached
0+
Countries reached
- In scholarships awarded
$0M+
In scholarships awarded
Cohort dashboard
Your Institution · Spring cohort
412
Enrolled
88%
Completion
19
Countries
Skill growth this cohort
Critical Thinking+82 pts
Communication+76 pts
Collaboration+91 pts
Adaptability+68 pts
93% of learners who sign up enroll in an opportunity
Already running inside these institutions.
Why now
You already know these numbers.
Here is what they mean together: the pool is shrinking, and what families expect of the degree changed at the same time.
−17%
New international enrollment
Fall 2025. Visa and policy volatility made this pipeline unreliable.
56.3%
Average first-year discount
A record. Over half of published tuition, given back to fill the class.
−49%
Entry-level tech postings
Since 2020. AI is compressing the first rungs of the career ladder.
88%
Families now expect outcomes
Say the degree must lead to a good job. Access alone no longer sells.
No. 1
Employers' tiebreaker
Between equal graduates: internship experience, not the degree.
Every force rewards the same behavior: engage students earlier, in wider geographies, with provable career value. That is not a tactic. It is a new method.
Sources: WICHE, Knocking at the College Door. IIE Fall Snapshot, 2025. NACUBO Tuition Discounting Study. Indeed Hiring Lab. Strada-Gallup education consumer research. NACE Job Outlook. US sector data; the same pattern holds across mature higher-education markets.
The shift
The decision forms years before your first letter arrives.
Families do not wait to be recruited. They search, they watch, and they ask current students, and they start four years before they apply. By the time traditional outreach begins, the list is largely made.
- 56%
- Say social matters most when they begin to explore
- 84%
- Report parents already involved by junior year
- 95%
- Consult current students as their top influence
Meet them four years early, in your name, with something real to do, and senior-year outreach becomes a reunion instead of an introduction.
The pivot
One engine. Four returns.
Run once, the engine compounds four ways. Four members of your cabinet each own a return, from one investment and one platform.
Recruitment
New markets, engaged earlier, including regions your admissions team will never physically visit. Every step deposits consented, intent-rich signal into your CRM, years before an application exists.
Owned by Enrollment
Retention
Students who arrive already connected, already skilled and already belonging are the students who stay.
Owned by the Provost
Reputation
Your name on every credential, every experience and every learner-facing surface.
Owned by Marketing
Relationships
Employers, schools and alumni, connected in your name and yours to keep.
Owned by Advancement
Run for recruitment alone, it would already earn its keep. The other three returns ride along at no marginal cost. That is what compounding means here.
In practice
Institutions don't run our program. They run theirs.
Each partner names it, brands it and hosts it as their own. Every experience runs in your institution's name, from the first click. The learner never meets a vendor; they meet you.
- What the institution defined
- A free, branded experiential learning platform open to any student worldwide. RIT defined the tone, the badge design and the commitment to career-ready education.
- What we ran
- Multiple cohorts of virtual internships, competitions, workshops and skill courses. Students from 60+ countries have joined, and every completion earns a RIT-branded badge.
- What the institution got back
- Co-branded credentials, live dashboards, student skill records and a global pipeline of learners engaging with RIT long before they apply. Across 1,591 learner responses, RIT-sponsored programs average 4.4 out of 5.
- What the institution defined
- A free, SLU-branded experiential learning program open to students worldwide, spanning virtual internships, competitions, workshops and master classes. SLU set the disciplines, the scholarship commitment and the standard of delivery.
- What we ran
- Fourteen live opportunities across four formats, nine internships, three competitions, a workshop and a master class. SLU is the platform's largest sponsor and funds every $1,000 scholarship award in the catalog. Its Data Visualization program alone has drawn learners from more than 65 countries.
- What the institution got back
- Co-branded credentials and digital badges on every completion, live cohort dashboards, student skill records, and a global pipeline of learners engaging with SLU long before they apply. Across 9,651 learner responses, SLU-sponsored programs average 4.5 out of 5.
The evidence
Measured at partner institutions. Instrumented at yours.
Full program years at partner institutions, stated directionally and with the caveat printed right here, because that is how we would want to be sold to.
New markets, not re-marketing
In a full-year deployment, most participating learners had never heard of the sponsoring institution before the experience found them.
Interest follows experience
After one experience carrying the institution's name, most participants expressed interest in attending it.
Completers enroll at many times the rate
Among admitted students, the difference between single-digit and double-digit yield.
And on the quality of what carries your name:
4.5 / 5
Average learner rating
11,746 responses across all partner programs
98.3%
Say they'll apply these skills elsewhere in their education or work
11,746 responses across all partner programs
97.3%
Say it improved their collaboration and teamwork
11,746 responses across all partner programs
49.9%
Female participation across 150+ countries
11,724 responses stating gender
4.5 / 5
Average learner rating
11,746 responses across all partner programs
98.3%
Say they'll apply these skills elsewhere in their education or work
11,746 responses across all partner programs
97.3%
Say it improved their collaboration and teamwork
11,746 responses across all partner programs
49.9%
Female participation across 150+ countries
11,724 responses stating gender
Read this before believing us
Completers self-select, so these figures are directional, never your projection. The honest way to know is to measure it on your own funnel: matched cohorts, metrics agreed in writing, your data, your read. That is exactly what a pilot is for.
How a partnership works
What we operate. What you own.
Every alternative sells a system and leaves the labor to you. We are the operator, with the software included. Operated by us never means owned by us.
We operate
- Experience design, refreshed on a running cycle
- A standing bench of employer partners with real problems
- Delivery in every time zone: orientation, coaching, final presentations
- Assessment at scale: rubric scoring, weighted 360° evaluations, completion gates
- Credentials, skills transcripts and portfolios
- One data spine feeding your systems
You own
- All learner data, in your CRM as it is generated, portable in full at exit
- The credentials, issued in your name, on your terms
- The academic standard: rubrics and frameworks approved by your faculty
- The catalog: every experience offered in your name, approved by your team
- The brand: marks, tone and every learner-facing surface
- The relationships: every family, school and employer connection made in your name
The market sells software; it sells no operator. Faculty involvement is available as an option, never a condition.
The investment logic
Four budget lines. One engine.
You already fund these four efforts separately, through separate vendors, on separate contracts. The engine consolidates them into one annual number.
Recruitment marketing
Search, travel, purchased names, agencies
Retention programming
First-year engagement, success coaching
Brand campaigns
Awareness media, content, creative
Alumni engagement
Platforms, mentoring, re-engagement
Unlimited learnersNo meteringNo overageNo reconciliation
Growth in usage never reopens the contract, so adoption is an asset, not a cost.
Free for students: free to apply, free to take part, free certificate and badge.
Annual partnership, renewable, with no exclusivity requirements.
The number itself belongs in the working session, where it can be examined properly, alongside contract terms, references and the pilot design. No leap of faith is being requested on this page.
What institutions ask before they start.
Both, on one record. A learner can find you years before they apply, build a skills transcript in your name, enroll, keep going as a student, and stay connected as an alum. One engine covers all of it, which is why it consolidates budgets you already carry rather than adding a new one.
No. It gives them live industry briefs in volume that would otherwise take years to build. Your team keeps the student relationship. We run the program behind it.
Most partners fund it by consolidating spend they already carry across recruitment marketing, retention programming, brand and alumni engagement. It is one annual number with unlimited learners, no metering and no overage, so growth in usage never reopens the contract.
Because placements are capped by how many students employers can host, and they favor students who can travel or afford an unpaid term. This runs alongside what you already do and reaches students your existing pipeline cannot.
What gets evaluated is what AI cannot supply: consistency across the whole program, collaboration observed by teammates and mentors, response to feedback, and judgment in how tools are used. A student who misses the bar does not complete, and the record says so.
The program is built to the six professional criteria that define a genuine internship. Whether that converts to credit is your institution's decision under your own academic policy, and we supply whatever documentation your committee needs.
Your institution does. Learner data lands in your CRM as it is generated and is portable in full if we ever part ways. Student work products are shared with the host organization for assessment purposes, with clear licensing and privacy terms set out before the program begins.
You don't, from a page. That is what a pilot is for: matched cohorts, metrics agreed in writing, measured on your funnel, read by your team. The figures above are directional and we print the caveat next to them for the same reason.
A working session.
Then a pilot designed to be checked.
Matched cohorts, agreed metrics, your data, your read. Full terms, references and the number on the table. Families already choose this way, and the pool will not wait for the next planning cycle.