A seasoned professional, Kaitlin Dumont has expertise in bridging the realms of higher education and workforce learning. As the Director of Workforce Learning Innovation at Kaplan, she leads initiatives aimed at driving impactful change within this dynamic intersection. Collaborating closely with a diverse array of stakeholders, including university leaders, corporate executives, and government officials, Kaitlin focuses on expanding Kaplan’s footprint in pivotal areas such as work-based learning, career readiness, and innovative credentialing models like Credegrees.
With a track record of success highlighted by features in prominent publications like Inside Higher Ed and Education Technology Insights, Kaitlin’s influence extends far beyond the boardroom. Recently showcased as both a speaker and key member of the host committee at StartEd’s 2023 EdTech Week in New York City, she continues to shape and elevate the dialogue surrounding education technology, solidifying her position as a thought leader in the field.
Below are the highlights of the interview:
Can you tell us about your background and how it led you to your current position?
I’ve spent my entire career in the education sector. I started in experience-based education in the K-12 space at EF Education First, where I oversaw educational programs abroad for approximately 100 high schools and middle schools across the state of Mississippi. However, I knew I wanted to be in post-secondary education and pivoted to business school executive education at Harvard Business School. I began my time at HBS in a program coordination and operations role, then did a stint on the marketing and sales team before returning to a more senior role in program coordination and operations, overseeing a small team and running a portfolio of 18–20 executive development programs. Around the time of the birth of my first child, I was presented with the opportunity to step into a more strategic role with Tuck Executive Education at Dartmouth, where I oversaw all aspects of a portfolio of open enrollment and custom executive learning programs, as well as the development of our growing online portfolio in partnership with key ed tech providers like Coursera, Emeritus, and ExecOnline. It was during this time that I came to know Kaplan and the work it was doing in the university partnerships space (yes, I too was guilty of only knowing Kaplan as the “SAT test prep guys,” and “wow!” – does Kaplan do way more than SAT test prep these days). It was one of those “now or never moments” that caused me to make the leap from university-side to education partner-side of the sector. I spent my first year at Kaplan overseeing university partnerships, where I had the pleasure of working with presidents, provosts, and other senior university leaders on how Kaplan can support their most pressing strategic priorities. About a year ago, I stepped into the newly created role of head of workforce learning innovation.
Can you provide an overview of your role as the Director, Workforce Learning Innovation at Kaplan and the key responsibilities that come with it?
Currently, as the head of Workforce Learning Innovation at Kaplan, I articulate Kaplan’s strategic position at the intersection of higher education and workforce learning and development by partnering with cross-functional internal stakeholders and external constituents on a portfolio of strategic initiatives. These include strategic brand management through PR and communications efforts, testing financial viability and operational feasibility while solution-architecting as an internal consultant with our clients and design teams, and developing innovative new offerings such as our forthcoming Kaplan Career Bridge program, which seeks to up-skill community college students with industry-recognized credentials and place them in gainful employment opportunities with our corporate partners.
Which are the major services of the Kaplan and how do they the company to get ahead in the competition?
My former boss, Brandon Busteed, would often refer to the parable of the blind men and the elephant. The men had never come across an elephant before, so they learned and imagined what the elephant was by touching it. Each blind man felt a different part of the elephant—its trunk, ear, leg, side, tail, and tusk—and therefore imagined it as different things—a snake, fan, tree, wall, rope, and spear. However, they were only encountering one small part and not the entirety of the animal. That’s Kaplan. Some will know us for the SAT test prep they took as high school students, others for professional licensure like real estate or BAR, some for advanced workplace designations in the financial services space like the Series 63, and still others for our service partnerships with entire universities or corporations. Some will see our innovative efforts like Kaplan Career Core (a FastCompany World-Changing Idea), and that’s only in North America! The elephant extends internationally to Kaplan International Pathways, which recruits more international students to the US than any other provider, or Kaplan Business School, an award-winning independent higher education institution in Australia—and that’s only the “tip of the iceberg”! Kaplan’s competitive edge is that no other global education provider can offer everything Kaplan does, but further, Kaplan curates the breadth of its portfolio of offerings to the unique challenges of those it serves, building futures one success story at a time.
What are the most important aspects of a company’s culture? What principles do you believe in, and how do you build this culture?
Culture is notoriously difficult to articulate. I’m a big fan of Edgar Schein’s organizational culture triangle and the three levels it uses to explore company culture: artifacts, values, and assumptions. For artifacts, I can talk about how Kaplan is a remote-first organization and allows for all employees to reach their full potential through a flexible work environment (certainly something that has been a blessing to me as a mom to a three- and four-year-old!) Or for values, I can share Kaplan’s Core Values and how we strive to live those in everything we do—it’s this final level of assumptions that, unless you are here, is very difficult to articulate in an interview question—but I would encourage anyone who might be interested in exploring a new opportunity at Kaplan to get in touch with me, and I will certainly try to articulate these!
What is the significance of innovative ideas in the company?
I had the privilege of working with a faculty member at Dartmouth, Vijay “VG” Govindarajan, who had a framework called “the Three Box Solution”: Box 1 is “managing the present,” or how to optimize the current business, Box 2 is “selectively forgetting the past,” or the ability to let go of practices that no longer serve, and Box 3 is “creating the future,” or the non-linear innovative ideas that invent a new business or model. Businesses need all three, and they need shared resources to support all three—and that’s where Kaplan sits. As an 85+ year old industry incumbent, it is imperative that we balance the “Box 1” performance engine of the business with the “Box 3” innovative ideas; however, it is in the balance of these boxes and sharing resources that true competitive differentiation lies.
What is your vision for the future of Kaplan’s Workforce Learning Innovation, and how do you see the role evolving to support the company’s long-term goals?
I had a conversation with a CHRO about a year ago where I had an “epiphany moment.” Even though we were speaking about learning strategy, I realized that their organization didn’t have a “learning problem”; they had a “talent problem,” and they would be equally happy recruiting talent from outside the organization as they would up-skill talent inside the organization, so long as those individuals had the right skills to drive profitability for the firm. My vision for the future of Kaplan is to construct a talent ecosystem, a career, and a talent pipeline machine. This is executed by not only up-skilling learners—individuals, as well as those within our university and corporate partners—but, when appropriate, placing those learners in “good” jobs that align with their unique skills, values, and interests, as well as the needs of the employer they are placed in. At the risk of getting overly business school jargony in this interview, I’ve always been a fan of Clay Christensen’s “Jobs to Be Done” framework: What is the job to be done? For example, people don’t buy hammers; they buy holes. What is the job to be done by education? To get a “good” job. I want to fulfill the ultimate value proposition of having every learner get that first or next “good” job.
What advice would you give someone going into a leadership position for the first time?
I can feel my own imposter syndrome taking over hearing this question, as I’m not sure even now I’d consider myself in a “leadership position.” However, thinking about what advice I’d give to a younger version of myself, I’d say, “Feel the fear, and do it anyway.” It’s so easy to give advice like “be fearless” or “be confident,” but I’ve always found that it’s just those moments when you feel the fear and have your mettle tested that the most tremendous growth and learning occur.
Website: kaplan.com
