By: Steven Appelbaum
ABC President & CEO
Hiya everybody, and welcome to a different version of “What’s Waggin.”
It’s exhausting to consider that 2024 is half over, however right here we’re. Enrollments yr so far are up over final yr. A part of the explanation for elevated enrollments is our diminished tuition value for a few of our hottest packages. We perceive how inflationary pressures make it tougher for animal lovers to pursue their desires of a profession within the pet trade and are doing the whole lot in our energy to ease a few of these monetary challenges by retaining our costs low.
Our Alumni group continues to develop, and we’re approaching 38,000 graduates. This at all times excites me as a result of it speaks to the long-standing enchantment of our packages. Has everybody who graduated from our program gone on to work within the pet trade? No, after all not, though when wanting on the profession trajectories of ABC graduates, the very first thing we discover is {that a} stunning variety of them by no means deliberate on working within the pet trade however as an alternative use the data and expertise they realized by way of ABC to volunteer at rescues and shelters all throughout the continent. At this level, it’s all internationally, as I do know of a number of who work(ed) at shelters/rescues in Japan, China, South Korea, Germany, France, and the UK. Apart from rescue volunteering, some graduates resolve they might slightly keep of their present non-pet associated jobs however use what they realized at ABC to strengthen their relationship with their pets and assist mates. Lastly, an incredible many graduates work part-time within the pet trade. The reality is that the profession paths of our graduates are diversified and various, as they’re. We have now college students from all walks of life, from these simply out of highschool and attempting to determine what they wish to do as adults to retired people trying to hold busy, give again, and set up secondary sources of earnings to complement their golden years.
We’ve additionally labored with veterans, together with those that participated in each battle from World Conflict II onward. For these of you who wish to do the maths on that final assertion, keep in mind the varsity began in 1998, and after I consider World Conflict II vets, I can recall one gentleman who took our program in 2000 at 74. Like I stated earlier, all walks of life.
Whereas reflecting on our previous is necessary, let’s additionally sit up for the long run. Thrilling modifications are on the horizon at ABC.
First, we are going to launch a number of new short-term packages within the subsequent 6-12 months. We are going to share extra about these once we get nearer, however we consider they are going to have widespread enchantment.
Second, we are going to revamp our Studying Administration System (LMS) within the not-too-distant future. Whereas this gained’t affect graduates as a lot as college students, Alumni who use the alumni middle to assessment up to date variations of our supplies will discover operations streamlined and far simpler.
Third, we can even provide an internet enrollment course of, making it a lot simpler for college students to enroll in one in every of our packages.
Fourth, we’re critically exploring the affect AI may have on our packages. A few of the supplies I’ve seen generated with AI are superb. AI can permit us so as to add extra visible aids, extra narration, and fewer textual content studying, and it’ll usually allow the varsity to modernize how we disseminate data to our college students. AI may additionally help us in doing one thing I’ve wished to do for a very long time: translating our packages into different languages in a fraction of the effort and time.
Anyway, that’s it for now. I’ll hold everybody posted as issues progress. Till then, hold cool, and do not forget that serving to animals makes the world a greater place.
