Pass with flying colors: Kermit Cook
As the new CEO of Penn Foster Group, Kermit Cook is out to double its annual graduates by embracing modern technology while honoring a legacy built over more than a century.
On his desk at his home in Connecticut, newly appointed CEO Kermit Cook keeps a hard copy of the International Correspondence School accounting course from 1916. As he flicks through the pages, Cook is transported back to a curriculum heavily focused on railroads and the titans of the industry from the early 1900s.
The reason he keeps it on his desk isn’t because he’s an enthusiast of industrial history, however.
"I keep it as a reminder of something that is extremely text-heavy and not engaging learners in a modern digital experience, the way technology can let us do today," he tells The CEO Magazine.
"The thought that we can have 150,000 students every year who are earning more money and doing better for their families because of what we’re doing has helped to reground us."
Penn Foster was founded, before any whisper of computers, the internet and mobile devices, when Thomas Foster began to offer training by mail to coal miners in Scranton, Pennsylvania, in 1890. It quickly became a pioneer in distance learning.
"People would subscribe to a course through its catalog, and they would mail out the courses from their facility in Pennsylvania, and people would send them back," he says.
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But there’s a flip side to being the pioneer – or what Cook refers to as ‘the curse of the first mover’.
"We spent 100 years producing courses like that, and sometimes it’s harder to transform and change those roots than it is to create something new," he says.
In other words, the company’s legacy might be its strength, but also part of the reason why, in early 2024, it found itself needing a new outlook.
What learners want
Enter Cook, a teacher and coach at heart. Since day one, his focus has been clear – to put learners front and center.
"I had two priorities," he explains of his first two months in the job. "Priority one was spending time with our learners and getting to know them and their journey and understanding what we could do to improve them," he says.
"The second priority was spending time with our teams, in particular our teams on the front lines – the instructors, academic advisors, student support teams and admission teams."
His goal was to personally understand the current lived experiences, the challenges and the areas where he could start to improve those outcomes. It had been a turbulent few years internally, marked by restructurings and layoffs, and this regrouping was essential to start a new chapter in the company’s history.
In 2024, the company is on track to graduate 75,000 learners on the pathway to jobs. Cook believes the organization can more than double that figure within the next five years. That possibility has been the boost the business and its people need as a north star to guide them.
"The thought that we can have 150,000 students every year who are earning more money and doing better for their families because of what we’re doing has helped to reground us and give one central theme for people to focus on," he says.
Momentum is building
One of Cook’s daily routines is keeping a journal. "I try to spend 15 or 20 minutes every morning on what’s top of my mind," he explains, and the habit has shown him that, while the momentum is building, there’s still a lot of work to do.
"We’re just at the start of the journey of improving the learning experience through digital technology, data-driven decision-making and testing and learning, in a way that we couldn’t have a decade ago," he says.
Of course, AI is part of that strategy, and the company has partnered with software company D2L to test AI and generative AI applications in the world of education.
An obsession with the learner is nothing new at Penn Foster, Cook says, adding that the typical student is an individual who is looking for a job that opens a door to financial stability.
"The traditional education system does not fit well with a life where you have to be working to make ends meet day in, day out."
"Our target learner is somebody who is looking for that entry-level career stepping stone, who often struggles with the traditional education system," he says.
"Maybe because of their own approach to learning, but often because the traditional education system does not fit well with a life where you have to be working to make ends meet day in, day out. They have responsibilities. They can’t afford to take two years off and spend thousands of dollars."
An average program cost at the cost of US$1,500 demonstrates just how central affordability is to Penn Foster’s mission. "In the past, the organization has viewed that as a barrier to improving the quality of the product," he says.
Part of the reason he was so excited about this opportunity was his background – education, digital education and working through turnarounds – and confidence that now is the time to leverage technology to improve the product affordably.
Time for detours
Born into a family of educators in West Virginia, Cook has education in his veins.
As he approached high school, he personally learned the impact teachers can have on their students when his mother pivoted from becoming a college professor toward being a high school teacher in one of the oldest prep schools in the United States. She did this so Cook and his sister could be educated there for free.
"I wouldn’t be here for you today if it weren’t for that experience," he reflects. "It really grounded in me a passion and appreciation for what the right education journey can unlock for people."
The path to his first-ever CEO appointment hasn’t been linear – after starting out his career as a high school physics teacher in St Louis Public Schools with Teach For America, he enrolled in a joint MBA and Master of Education at Stanford University.
"Taking the roads that challenge and stretch me in very different ways doesn’t mean that I’m turning my back forever on a passion."
From there, he joined global investment firm KKR, serving as Co-Head of KKR Capstone in the Americas and as a member of the Portfolio Management Committee, before the opportunity to become COO at education technology company Cengage Group came knocking.
His mom and her eventual career from the classroom to the ministry, showed him that careers are long, and he had time to take detours.
"Taking the roads that challenge and stretch me in very different ways doesn’t mean that I’m turning my back forever on a passion," he says. "There are still ways to stay connected to the world of education, teaching and learning, but on a road that was going to stretch me."
One of his biggest lessons is that, whenever he’s put himself in uncomfortable situations, he’s learned the most.
"Giving myself the grace to take those detours along my career journey has been rewarding for me," he says. "Together, those detours have put together a combination of experiences that have aligned in an amazing way to join Penn Foster."