This article was based on the interview with #859: University of Phoenix Chief Strategy Officer Ruth Veloria on higher education and the workforce of the future by Greg Kihlström, AI and MarTech keynote speaker for The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström podcast. Listen to the original episode here:
The half-life of a professional skill seems to be getting shorter than the time it takes to get a new budget line item approved. For marketing leaders, this isn’t just an abstract problem for the L&D department to solve; it’s a direct threat to our ability to execute and innovate. We are constantly searching for talent proficient in the latest analytics platform, the newest AI-driven content tool, or the most recent evolution in privacy-compliant ad tech. The traditional model—where education is a discrete phase of life that concludes with a degree, followed by decades of work—is fundamentally misaligned with the realities of the modern economy. The pressure is on us, as leaders, to cultivate teams that can learn, adapt, and acquire new competencies as quickly as the market demands them.
This challenge requires us to think less like managers and more like architects of a continuous learning ecosystem. It means re-evaluating our relationship with educational institutions and demanding models that are built for the professionals we employ today, not the 18-year-old students of yesterday. The principles we apply to creating frictionless, personalized customer experiences are the very same principles that must be applied to professional education. In a recent conversation with Ruth Veloria, the Chief Strategy and Customer Officer at University of Phoenix, we explored how one institution has spent decades engineering its entire operating model around this very idea, offering a compelling blueprint for how to bridge the ever-widening gap between academia and the modern workplace.
The Operating Model: Designing for the Primary Customer, Not the Exception
For most traditional universities, the working adult learner is often an afterthought—a secondary audience bolted onto an operating model designed for full-time, residential students. This results in a clunky, frustrating experience for professionals trying to juggle careers, families, and education. The strategic shift, as Veloria points out, is not simply about offering classes online; it’s about fundamentally re-architecting the entire institution around the specific needs, pressures, and goals of the working adult, treating them as the primary customer.
This is a lesson in customer-centricity that any marketing leader can appreciate. When you truly define your core audience, you stop making compromises and start making intentional design choices. For University of Phoenix, this meant forgoing the traditional campus trappings to prioritize what their learners actually value: flexibility, predictability, and immediate workplace relevance. It’s a classic case of understanding the “job to be done.” The job isn’t to replicate a coming-of-age campus experience; it’s to provide the most efficient and effective path to career advancement without derailing the rest of a person’s life.
“The deeper strategic shift is really designing around that working adult, which is who we serve certainly as the primary learner. And, you know, we’re not just like an exception to the traditional model. That is our primary learner. And so they’re managing a lot of competing pressures. We have to design for that. They’re managing work schedules, caregiving, financial pressure, career uncertainty… Students want to learn, but there’s a mismatch in how institutions are designed. So, you know, here at University of Phoenix, that reality really does shape our model.”
This is a powerful reframing. By defining the working adult as the primary learner, every operational decision is filtered through that lens. The asynchronous five-to-six-week course structure isn’t an accident; it’s a deliberate design choice that creates a predictable rhythm for someone balancing multiple responsibilities. The tradeoff—losing the campus cafeteria—is a small price to pay for a system that provides the structure and flexibility necessary for success. For marketing leaders, the takeaway is clear: are our internal training programs and professional development opportunities designed as exceptions to the “real work,” or are they thoughtfully integrated into the professional lives of our team members?
Personalization: Beyond the Algorithm
In MarTech, we talk incessantly about personalization. Often, this translates to algorithmically-driven recommendations or dynamically inserted content fields. While useful, it can sometimes feel sterile—impersonal personalization. The University of Phoenix model demonstrates a more sophisticated, blended approach that marries data-driven insights with essential human connection, creating an experience that is both tailored and supportive.
The process begins by acknowledging that learners don’t arrive as blank slates. Just as we use zero-party and first-party data to understand a customer’s history, the university assesses prior work experience, military training, certifications, and previous college credits to create a truly personalized learning path from day one. But the personalization doesn’t stop there. By analyzing engagement signals within the digital classroom—time spent on materials, interaction with faculty, and other digital breadcrumbs—the system can proactively identify students who may be struggling. This is where the model moves beyond simple automation. These data triggers don’t just result in an automated email; they often lead to intervention from a human counselor who can diagnose the root problem, offer solutions, and provide the motivation needed to stay on track.
“We also have a big data team that looks at everywhere people are clicking, where they’re going in the classroom, all kinds of signals are available to us to let us know, is this person spending enough time in the library… And we can see right away if students may be falling off… we make it available for them to speak to some of our counselors, and the counselors can solve problems, you know, they may be able to get in and make suggestions, and honestly, keep students motivated… The counselor is a big piece of building a personal relationship too with the student.”
This human-in-the-loop approach is critical. A four-year degree journey is a marathon, not a sprint, and motivation can wane. An algorithm can spot a problem, but it takes a human to provide empathy, encouragement, and nuanced guidance. For leaders building their teams, this is a lesson in how to scale support. While we should absolutely use data to understand employee engagement and performance, technology should augment, not replace, the essential role of human mentorship and management. The most effective systems know when to pass the baton from a machine to a person.
Measurement: From Completion Rates to Career Confidence
How do we measure the success of an initiative? In marketing, we can get fixated on bottom-of-the-funnel metrics like conversion rates or MQLs, sometimes at the expense of a more holistic view of customer health and long-term value. Similarly, in education, the default metric has always been the graduation rate. While important, it’s a lagging indicator that fails to capture the value created along the way. Veloria’s team takes a much more comprehensive approach, measuring the incremental gains that build momentum and confidence for the learner.
This includes tracking things like course-to-course persistence, skills acquisition, and the awarding of digital badges for mastering specific competencies. A badge for “emergency preparedness for nursing,” for instance, is a tangible, verifiable credential that a student can immediately add to their LinkedIn profile, signaling value to a current or future employer long before they have a diploma in hand. This focus on demonstrable skills is far more aligned with the needs of the modern workforce than a simple transcript. Furthermore, by rigorously tracking customer experience metrics like Net Promoter Score (NPS) and benchmarking against peers, they hold themselves accountable not just for the academic outcome, but for the quality of the journey itself.
“Completion obviously matters, but… it’s really not the only indication of value… We are very much focused on, are students confident in being able to explain what they’re able to do to that next employer?.. Our why for adult learners is both economic, like getting that badge or getting that next credential and moving on. But it’s also a human outcome. You know, are they building skills, are they feeling more confident, are they moving towards the role that they want? And, you know, can they keep going without destabilizing a personal situation, work and family life?”
This is a masterclass in measuring what matters. For leaders, it’s a reminder to look beyond the ultimate goal—whether it’s a product launch or a quarterly revenue target—and measure the leading indicators of success. Are team members acquiring the skills they need? Are they confident in their ability to apply them? Are we providing tangible milestones that celebrate progress and build momentum? Focusing on these human and economic outcomes in tandem creates a more resilient, motivated, and ultimately more successful organization.
Looking Ahead: The Integrated Ecosystem
The future of professional development lies in a more tightly integrated ecosystem between employers, employees, and educational institutions. The old, transactional relationship is being replaced by a more strategic partnership centered on skills. As AI continues to automate transactional tasks, the premium on higher-order skills like critical thinking, judgment, and strategic oversight will only increase. Forward-thinking educational models are not shying away from this reality; they are leaning into it.
Veloria notes that they are proactively embedding AI skills and tools into every course, teaching students not just the subject matter, but how to leverage modern tools responsibly and effectively. This realistic approach acknowledges that employees are already using these tools, and the goal should be to teach them how to do so effectively, ethically, and with an understanding of the potential pitfalls. It’s about preparing them for the workforce they will be in tomorrow, not the one that existed five years ago. This culminates in a world where the line between learning and working becomes increasingly blurred, to the benefit of all parties.
“If we had an old center of gravity that was really just about credentials alone, now it’s really credentials plus demonstrable skills, and that is what the employers are really looking for… We have baked AI skills into every single one of our courses in some way… This is what people are doing in the workforce now. So, you might as well learn how to use those tools while you’re embedded here at the school.”
As leaders, we can no longer afford to view education as something that happens outside the walls of our organization. The onus is on us to foster a culture of continuous learning and to partner with institutions that understand the urgency and the practical needs of our business. Connecting learning directly to opportunity, as Veloria advises, is the key to retention and growth. When employees see a clear path from acquiring a new skill to advancing their career within the company, professional development shifts from a passive benefit to a powerful driver of engagement and loyalty.
The conversation about the future of work and the future of education is one and the same. The models that will succeed are those that treat lifelong learners as the discerning customers they are—offering flexible, personalized, and relevant experiences that deliver demonstrable value. For marketing leaders, the mandate is twofold: we must seek out these modern educational partners to upskill our teams, and we must apply these same customer-centric principles to the way we develop the talent we already have. After all, our organizations can only be as agile as the people within them.
