Nurturing Staff

The agenda is now out! ‘Nurturing Staff’ is one of six new themes for the LERN Annual Conference, Nov. 17-20, 2025. The conference will have all-new sessions in pioneering best practices and advanced strategies and tips. The most exciting week in lifelong learning just got more exciting. Over 1,500 people will attend, making it the

Dashboard Open

It’s free and open to all, even non-member organizations. Get feedback on the five most important measures in our business. Enter your data and get comparisons with your fellow organizations by institutional setting and size of community.  Your data is confidential. Just go to www.LERNdashboard.org   Now. Don’t wait. Find out what the average program gets

Pricing Tips

Pricing is a critical activity we do all the time.  This is one of the three most popular topics for members.  Last month we had over 200 people sign up for our complimentary webinar on pricing. Let’s look at the 5 pricing tips that stand out right now in 2025. 1.Courses and offerings with the

Top Ten

The LERN Top Ten Highlights for FY25 focus on the pioneering, breakthrough innovations, research, best practices, benchmarks and data co-created by our members and staff. As your primary information and consulting resource concludes its fiscal year, we thank you for all your support, attendance, and membership.  Once again, another 100,000 people took classes from our

Recruiting Instructors

It’s a top challenge for programs this year. For a variety of demographic reasons, it is tougher now to attract instructors who want to teach. Three practitioners from three different institutional settings have developed innovative and successful ways to recruit instructors. Here’s what they do. Cast a Wider Net   Cast a wider net, says Michael

New! ‘Class Rank’

Exclusive to UGotClass, a new Class Ranking premieres this month.  The Class Ranking allows your students, and especially their employers, to find out how well each did compared to others taking the same certificate over the past year. The ranking is confidential, of course. Unless your student is in the Top Ten. Then you and

This Fall, Become a CPP

  This fall, become a CPP.  For leaders, send your entire staff to become a Certified Program Planner (CPP).   Professionals in the field only know about 50% of what they need to know to maximize their productivity and your organization’s success, according to LERN’s lead instructor for the CPP, Vice President Brendan Marsello.   

New Summer Camp Event

Every program should be offering, or expanding, their Summer Camps and Kids’ College programming. Summer camps for youth cannot keep up with demand, are very profitable, and have other financial benefits for your organization. Now you have two ways to plan for Summer Camps 2026. Summer Camps 2026 Webinar Series   The top practitioners from around

New Service: A Smile

“Oh, I’m not rescuing you. I just want you to have my flyer on ‘Making Crafts with Coconut Shells.’” Smile. You have a cartoon with every issue of your LERN print newsletter this coming year. They are drawn exclusively for LERN by artist Greg Brecht. A little old-fashioned, a little corny, and just right. Enjoy.

New Recommendations

This year’s two new LERN Recommendations are that EVERY program should offer classes for:*Boomers.*Kids and Youth. Even programs focused on professional development and workforce development can reap the rewards from programming to Boomers as well as to Kids and Youth. The reason is money, both for your program and to your other financial contributions to

Innovations 2025

No other conference has it.New! “Innovations 2025” is an exclusive report for organizations attending this year’s 2025 Annual Conference. You get the report on the pioneering breakthrough innovations in the last twelve months: 1. Authentic Programming   A new strategy to customize and create new programming for different neighborhoods and communities. 2. No-Cost 5 Step SEO  

The 9 Best Ideas

   From over 40 great tips from LERN members, our consultants picked the 9 Best Ideas for this year. Here they are, with links to 2-4 minute videos for more information. #1  Increase spending on marketing for classes that are already doing well.Click here for more information https://youtu.be/CWNiABBRFfQ #2 Do Instagram reels of 15-30 second

Your AI Faculty

For programs having trouble finding quality local AI instructors for your in-person classes. Get our online “AI Certificate” in your next print brochure. Our online faculty will take care of your customers. Bring this critical workplace and professional development skill to your community. Click here for the full description. Our “AI Certificate” premiered in February

Coming soon! Dashboard Level 2

Get the benchmarks, comparisons and data from your fellow programs in the same institutional setting. Dashboard Level 1 is FREE, even for non-member programs. Coming soon! Dashboard  Level 2. Keep reading to find out about Level 2. Dashboard Level 1For Dashboard Level 1, we ask 5 quick multiple choice questions. We ask for a range,

Latest Best Practices

   From award winning LERN members, here are three Best Practices this year.  Best Staffing Practice   Recruitment and retention of staff, including part-time and temporary summer staff, is now one of the top issues in the field. A Recruitment Fair is one key element in a new initiative by the most innovative programs to nurture

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