Per Scholas President and CEO Plinio Ayala Contributes a Chapter to Next Generation Evidence: Strategies for More Equitable Social Impact

Per Scholas President and CEO Plinio Ayala recently contributed a chapter to Next Generation Evidence: Strategies for More Equitable Social Impact. In it, he recalls Per Scholas’ overnight transition to remote courses as a result of COVID-19. For the two decades prior, Per Scholas conducted our teaching in person to mimic the workplace, which we believed contributed to our success. To keep our training going, we took this as an opportunity to see how our program and learners fared remotely. We began collecting remote participants’ feedback from both the learners and staff. This feedback allowed us to make changes in real-time; we saw what we did right and learned what to improve on. When Barrow Street Consulting conducted an analysis over the summer of 2020, the learner Net Promoter Score was a success – scoring a 67 out of a 100 (the range is -100 to 100, with a typical score in the for-profit sector ranges between a 30 and 40). The feedback from this made us realize that in-person is not the only way for us to successfully provide teaching, and we now continue to offer remote options. 

Read the rest of Plinio’s reflection on this experience here.