The Opportunity

Peirce College, a Philadelphia-based PBI serving adult and working student populations, is committed to serving their learners holistically – ultimately supporting learners to thrive in school, the workforce and beyond. To take steps toward improving retention and support across their student body, Peirce secured a US Department of Education PBI Grant and launched an initiative focused on improving student development and wellbeing, including equipping their staff with InsideTrack’s evidence-based coaching methodology.

Peirce College: Philadelphia PBI undergoes coaching certification to strengthen retention

Peirce College: Philadelphia PBI undergoes coaching certification to strengthen retentionarrow

The Solution

Peirce College worked with InsideTrack on a comprehensive training and development initiative to embed InsideTrack’s evidence-based coaching methodology into their advising and career services. This included coaching training and certification for staff members across both departments, leadership training for managers, quality assessment and development, and change management.

Proven Results

The Impact

Working through department-wide shifts in mindset and processes, Peirce staff committed to  embodying a holistic coaching approach – focusing on the deeper motivations each learner has for being in school. The result? All of Peirce College’s advising staff and career counselors were trained and certified in InsideTrack’s evidence-based coaching methodology, which allowed them to speak the same student-support language across departments. 

Ultimately, the coaching development and training for staff – as well as Coaching-Powered Leadership certification for managers – helped support staff get to the heart of student challenges and connect with students on a deeper level, ensuring they stay on track to complete their programs. 

The Impact

Working through department-wide shifts in mindset and processes, Peirce staff committed to  embodying a holistic coaching approach – focusing on the deeper motivations each learner has for being in school. The result? All of Peirce College’s advising staff and career counselors were trained and certified in InsideTrack’s evidence-based coaching methodology, which allowed them to speak the same student-support language across departments. 

Ultimately, the coaching development and training for staff – as well as Coaching-Powered Leadership certification for managers – helped support staff get to the heart of student challenges and connect with students on a deeper level, ensuring they stay on track to complete their programs. 

We are able to use the InsideTrack methodology to set that strong foundation to make sure that each student understands what it is they want to get from their degree, and to help them execute on those goals.

Leslie Ballway

Director, Center for Career and Professional Development, Peirce College

InsideTrack training has been very valuable for me. It has helped me get to the core of students’ needs. For example, sometimes students are not so willing to contact an advisor when they’re struggling in class. But when I talk to a student and I use things like framing and assessing, that allows students to feel a little more comfortable and allows me to get to the needs of students more quickly.

April Dunlap

Academic Advisor, Peirce College

The training brought us a consistent departmental approach to building stronger relationships with our students. Changing the way we ask questions has allowed us to dig deeper, ensuring we understand the real challenges and motivations that students have.

Shannon Begley, Ed.D.

Dean, Academic Advising and Registrar, Peirce College

The InsideTrack coaching is really holistic, and I think it really helps to drive my “why,” in terms of being able to dig a little bit deeper, below the surface level, to find out more about what drives the students. My drive is to figure out what their drive is.

John Maeng

Academic Advisor, Peirce College

The impact of the PBI grant that the college received helped the college to be more intentional about how we reach students and to upskill the services we offer students. In terms of what InsideTrack offered the staff was to give them more tools in their arsenal, so to speak, and to utilize coaching – which we hadn’t been using before, but which is a wonderful tool to work with our students in particular.

Tracey Thomas

Associate Dean, Student Support Services, Peirce College

Download the full profile to see how Peirce College leveraged federal funding to train and certify their staff in our evidence-based coaching methodology.

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