By: Steven Appelbaum
ABC President & CEO
Hi there everybody, and welcome to a different version of “What’s Waggin.”
It’s onerous to consider that 2024 is half over, however right here we’re. Enrollments 12 months to this point are up over final 12 months. A part of the explanation for elevated enrollments is our decreased tuition price for a few of our hottest applications. We perceive how inflationary pressures make it tougher for animal lovers to pursue their desires of a profession within the pet business and are doing every thing in our energy to ease a few of these monetary challenges by protecting 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 attraction of our applications. Has everybody who graduated from our program gone on to work within the pet business? No, in fact 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 business however as a substitute use the information and expertise they discovered 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. Other than rescue volunteering, some graduates resolve they might relatively keep of their present non-pet associated jobs however use what they discovered at ABC to strengthen their relationship with their pets and assist pals. Lastly, an awesome many graduates work part-time within the pet business. The reality is that the profession paths of our graduates are diversified and numerous, as they’re. We’ve got college students from all walks of life, from these simply out of highschool and making an attempt to determine what they need to do as adults to retired of us trying to maintain busy, give again, and set up secondary sources of revenue to complement their golden years.
We’ve additionally labored with veterans, together with those that participated in each battle from World Battle II onward. For these of you who need to do the mathematics on that final assertion, bear in mind the varsity began in 1998, and after I consider World Battle 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 look ahead to the longer term. Thrilling adjustments are on the horizon at ABC.
First, we’ll launch a number of new short-term applications within the subsequent 6-12 months. We’ll share extra about these after we get nearer, however we consider they may have widespread attraction.
Second, we’ll 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 heart to evaluation up to date variations of our supplies will discover operations streamlined and far simpler.
Third, we will even supply an internet enrollment course of, making it a lot simpler for college kids to enroll in one in all our applications.
Fourth, we’re severely exploring the affect AI might have on our applications. A few of the supplies I’ve seen generated with AI are wonderful. 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 info to our college students. AI might additionally help us in doing one thing I’ve needed to do for a very long time: translating our applications into different languages in a fraction of the effort and time.
Anyway, that’s it for now. I’ll maintain everybody posted as issues progress. Till then, maintain cool, and keep in mind that serving to animals makes the world a greater place.
