The software firm Destiny Solutions, from Toronto, Canada, has chosen to implement their new software for continuing education at the McKimmon Center. Destiny Solutions is one of the pioneers for developing software for continuing education. Since 2001, this Canadian enterprise has developed new programs to foster a relationship among educators and learners and to manage their lifelong learning cycle.
According to Yancy Oshita , Chief Marketing Officer of Destiny Solutions, “We chose NCSU because they are strategically focused on serving and growing non-traditional students, as well as related services including conference and event management.”
According to the company, more than 47 percent of higher education students are older than 25. While traditional 18 to 24-year-old students have similar life pressures and responsibilities, Destiny Solutions is working to target a different learning crowd with different needs and constraints. Lifelong or adult learners are dealing with competing stresses between family obligations and educational and career goals. Most of these students are balancing their work and study, while being unemployed or underemployed.
“We have been implementing our software at the university level because they are the primary gateway to improving education, skills and knowledge among our nation’s adults in the twenty first century global marketplace,” Rachel Kuper , a public relations officer of Destiny Solutions, said.
Under the leadership of Alice Warren, the vice provost for Continuing Education, the process of transition of Destiny Solutions to N.C. State was extremely smooth, with the joint support from the former vice chancellor of the Office of Extension, Engagement, and Economic Development, James J. Zuiches .
“Following a business discovery process between Destiny Solutions and MCE&CE, it was determined jointly that Destiny One was the best fit platform to enable NCSU’s ambitious growth plans,” Oshita said.
The developers of Destiny One firmly believe that Destiny One can change the face of continuing education at the University.
“Firstly, following a business discovery process between Destiny Solutions and MCE&CE [the McKimmon Center], it was jointly determined that Destiny One was the best fit platform to enable NCSU’s ambitious growth plans,” Oshita said. “Secondly, because Destiny One is crafted exclusively for non-traditional education, each of MCE&CE’s eight distinct units will have the business flexibility to best meet the needs of their respective customers.”
In addition to the McKimmon Center, other institutions implementing Destiny One on their campus are Penn State World Campus, Stanford University Center for Professional Development, New York University School of Continuing and Professional Studies and Portland State University School of Education and School of Extended Studies. All these schools are strategically focused on serving the growing non-traditional student population through continuing education, distance learning and workforce development credit and non-credit programs.
Though many firms are involved in developing software for continuing and extension education, Destiny One, is the only software that offers integrated constituent, enrollment and administrative management on a single software platform designed exclusively to meet the divergent needs of non-traditional higher education.
“We measure our success by how successful our clients are with our software,” Kuper said. “We view initial implementation NCSU as a success with future phases to replicate this to other units.”
“The N.C. State team is extremely competent and an excellent reference case for how our future customers should leverage our software,” Oshita said.
The average age of the college students is on the rise, and with that comes special needs. The market for student friendly software is growing and NCSU and Destiny Solutions are looking to capitalize on the growth.
