What do you foresee as the future trajectory of the companies you mentioned in the next 2-3 years?
We’re in a position of incredible momentum, and we’ve proven that even in tough market conditions, our companies thrive because we provide a landing spot for thought leadership and safety. I’m confident our brand will gain not only three-fold market share, but some will be more of a household name.
Can you provide a brief overview of your company, including its mission, values, and core areas of operation?
Our history dates to 2005, when we founded our flagship real estate education brand, The CE Shop. Inspired by their premier learning platform, incredible leadership, knowledgeable staff, and passion to do the right thing, Career Certified was created. Looking to make an even more meaningful impact in the lives of people across the nation, the Career Certified vision became clear: to make your purpose attainable. Driven by our core values, we began expanding into new professional verticals. We started in early 2022 with an acquisition of Mbition, an online real estate school that came with Stringham Schools, a real state education provider in Utah; and AHIT, a leader in home inspection training nationwide. Late 2022, we bought Amber Book, which offers ARE® exam prep and career lifecycle tools for aspiring architects; and finally, A.D. Banker, an education provider specializing in insurance and securities careers from prelicensing, to continuing education and professional development. Our talented teams have come together from across the country to collaborate, share resources, and make each other better, solidifying the Career Certified vision. The integration has been smooth sailing, but we aren’t done yet. Looking to the future, we will continue adding to our family of brands until every person has the option to become the professional they aspire to be. Because at Career Certified, we start with the person, and help build the professional.
Our mission is to ignite your full potential and continuously guide your career through innovative thinking, evolved technology and valuable learning. Our vision is to make purpose attainable.
Describe the corporate culture within your organization. How do you foster employee engagement and a positive work environment?
Our Core Values are imperative to the foundation of culture and why we do anything well. As part of that, our customer comes first. From our annual company kickoff to ensure alignment and focus across all teams, to having the right people to get the job done, to allowing our smart people to be smart and think big, to moments of fun both in-person and virtual, we foster a multi-faceted approach to employee engagement. Our positivity comes from the opportunities we create and have a zero-tolerance policy for any toxicity.
What is the long-term vision for your company, and what strategic goals are you working towards in the next 3-5 years?
The actionable goals we had last year and the ones that will be completed this year launch us on a trajectory that simply separates from any other competitor in the multi-vertical education space. Our unified scalable platform and focus on brand health allows us to navigate integrations faster and more securely, which means our innovation time speeds up to keep ahead of our customer needs. Our long term vision is to innovate the learner’s experience to not only allow students to gain their licensing and certifications in the careers we cover, but also be able to be successful in those careers with the ongoing professional development courses we build.
How do the companies you identified differentiate themselves from their competitors in terms of market positioning and strategy?
I believe our differentiation and sincerity shines through when we truly try to address our customers’ and partners’ pain points, create products that help them succeed, and use the voice of the customer to mirror back their needs and opportunities. Our offerings are aimed to streamline the path to success and we stay engaged with the customer for their entire career lifecycle, and with partners for years to come as we help them optimize their operations, as well as standardize the education of their staff.
In your opinion, how important is a strong competitive edge for a company to be considered one of the smartest in its industry?
Well, a company is not the smartest in the industry without attention to its competitive edge. For us, however, while we keep an eye on the competition, it’s more fulfilling and fruitful to keep ahead of what our customers and partners need for their education, how they want the education to be delivered, and how partners want to grow and understand their own opportunities for revenue potential, operational initiatives, and customers. We can help with that, and allow them to be smarter with us by their side.
To what extent do the companies you mentioned integrate sustainable and environmentally friendly practices into their business operations?
Wholly, we work on our ESG strategy and approach as a leadership-led initiative. But our online learning, eTextbooks, asynchronous learning (no paper!) is about as environmentally-friendly as one can find in today’s education landscape, as well as sustainable given the flexibility it lends us and our audience to engage when they’re ready to learn or on-the-go.
How crucial is the role of leadership and talent acquisition in the success of the companies?
It’s high on our list, the role of the best leadership for our culture and vision, as well as having the best talent acquisition team I’ve ever worked with is critical to our success.
