Penn Foster Career School


Penn Foster Career School is a U.S. for-profit, regionally and nationally-accredited online career school. The school was founded in 1890, and was known as International Correspondence Schools, or ICS. It is headquartered in Scranton, PA. Students of Penn Foster Career School can study online at a pace that is right for them. Penn Foster Career School offers over 50 Career Diploma Programs and over 30 Certificate Programs.

History

In 1890, a newspaper editor named Thomas J. Foster founded the school to provide coal miners with the education they needed to advance in their careers and increase worker safety. At the turn of the century, the school was officially known as the International Correspondence Schools, and one out of every 27 adults in the US had taken an ICS course.
ICS was renamed Penn Foster in 2005. Wicks Group, a private equity firm, had bought the school from Thomson Corporation in 2007. In December 2009, Penn Foster Career School was purchased by test preparation and educational support company The Princeton Review, the On May 18, 2012, the Princeton Review brand name and operations were bought for $33 million by Charlesbank Capital Partners, a private-equity firm. The parent company was renamed Education Holdings 1, Inc. In 2013, Education Holdings 1 filed for bankruptcy; it exited two months later.
In December 2015, Penn Foster acquired the self-paced, competency-based learning platform built by UniversityNow.

Academics

provides students with the opportunity to earn certificates and career diplomas at their own pace through online courses and instruction. Penn Foster Career School offers over 80 different programs in , , Creative/Design, , Education, Health Services, , Natural Health, Technology, and Trades areas.