LOS ANGELES, CA — June 24, 2020 — InStride, the premier global provider of Strategic Enterprise Education™, today announced that EdTech Breakthrough, a leading market intelligence organization that recognizes the top companies and solutions in the global educational technology market, selected InStride as the winner of its “Overall Enterprise Learning Solution Provider of the Year” award in the second annual EdTech Breakthrough Awards program.

InStride helps employers provide career-boosting degrees and credentials to their employees from leading academic institutions that deliver measurable business outcomes and create a more adaptable, innovative workforce. InStride’s unique Strategic Enterprise Education™ process is a customized approach to identify a company’s specific strategic challenges, assess skills gaps across the organization, and design a comprehensive program that equips employees with relevant education opportunities through partnership with top-quality institutions that are committed to serving working adult learners.

“As the global COVID-19 pandemic and rapidly changing technology landscape continue to transform work, employees are required to evolve their skills to keep pace, and InStride is making a meaningful impact during this transformative time, helping improve people’s lives by reimagining how to educate today’s workforce,” said James Johnson, managing director, EdTech Breakthrough. “We know that employees who receive high-quality degrees and credentials drive measurable growth for their business. We want to congratulate InStride with their customized approach and comprehensive program with our 'Overall Enterprise Learning Solution Provider of the Year' Award.”

The mission of the EdTech Breakthrough Awards is to honor excellence and recognize the innovation, hard work and success in a range of educational technology categories, including Student Engagement, School Administration, Adaptive Learning, STEM Education, e-Learning, Career Preparation and many more. This year’s program attracted more than 1,750 nominations from over 15 different countries throughout the world. 

“At InStride, we understand the ecosystems of both universities and global companies and we're committed to translating these experiences to help corporations understand why providing employees access to an advanced degree or credential is good for their business growth and for the community at large,” said Vivek Sharma, CEO of InStride. “Companies can be part of the solution by providing employees easier access to education pathways – high school diplomas, advanced degrees, and short-form credentials – through a top-tier global academic network.”

American companies invest nearly $180 billion annually on training programs to address employee recruiting, retention, and upskilling, including the $28 billion they allocate for traditional tuition assistance programs (TAPs). Although 80% of employees who have knowledge of such programs are interested in going to school while working, only 2% actually take advantage of TAPs, according to an InStride/Bain & Co. survey.

These results illustrate how TAPs do not show a clear return on investment for companies or attract support from employees. Unlike TAPs, InStride’s Strategic Enterprise Education™ program achieves transformative business and social impact. It not only builds employee’s skills to align with the organization’s shifting needs, but it also delivers the added benefit of providing employees with degrees and credentials, to the benefit of them, their families and their communities.

InStride education programs are developed in partnership with an expanding network of research quality academic institutions, including Arizona State University, Harvard Business School Online, University of Washington’s Continuum College, University of Wisconsin-Madison, City University of New York, Dublin City University, and Universidad Tecmilenio. InStride engages this network to collectively offer more than 400 degree and certificate programs through online curricula, in multiple languages, helping to identify the programs that will best teach employees the skills the organization needs most during these changing times.