/EINPresswire.com/ -- DENVER, CO--(Marketwired - March 26, 2017) - Penn Foster, a leading skills solutions organization focused on providing competencies, career pathways and employment matching for today's evolving workforce, will discuss the importance of preparing students for the workforce through building valuable soft skills, and will introduce its new Career Readiness Bootcamp program at the National School Boards Association (NSBA) Annual Conference and Exposition. Penn Foster is a silver sponsor and presenter, and attendee for a third year in a row.

The NSBA Annual Conference and Exposition is the one national event that brings together education leaders at a time when domestic policies and global trends are combining to shape the future of our students. The conference presents new strategies to managing school district finances and operations, showcases the latest technologies that aid student learning, demonstrates best practices gleaned from real-life experiences at other school districts, and allows board members to network with experts and peers.

Today, from 3:00-3:30pm MT in Study Hall 1, Penn Foster is scheduled to present a session titled 3 Ways to Prepare Students for Lifelong Success through Soft Skills Development.

"With 40% of students lacking the soft skills or 'power skills,' needed for success in today's workplace(1), we want to discuss solutions for how the education community can address this gap," said Pat Gaffey, vice president of Admissions, Penn Foster. "Many schools don't have the programs in place to develop these valuable skills. This presentation will explore actionable strategies to develop soft skills and better prepare students for college and career success."

As one solution, Penn Foster will present a preview of its new Career Readiness Bootcamp, which offers schools and organizations the opportunity to provide students a program to build key workplace readiness and personal effectiveness skills needed for long-term career success. Students participating in the Career Readiness Bootcamp pilot program posted gains of 25%, on average, in teamwork, communication, integrity, and customer focus, in their pre- to post-module assessments.

Conference-goers will also have the chance to stop by booth #541 to learn more about soft skills and the Career Readiness Bootcamp.

With more than 7,000 school board members, superintendents, and education leaders from across the country and around the globe, the NSBA Annual Conference and Exposition offers attendees the chance to gain valuable knowledge and information in five key areas: Leadership, Advocacy, Technology + Learning, Urban school issues, and School law. Attendees will come away with ideas and strategies through more than 200 programming sessions, workshops, speakers, site visits and exhibitors, on cutting-edge content, best practices, and the freshest ideas to support student achievement. To learn more about the event, visit https://www.nsba.org/conference.

About Penn Foster

Students, employers and partner organizations rely on Penn Foster to build the skills and knowledge to power the 21st century workforce. For over 125 years, Penn Foster has been dedicated to helping people lead more meaningful and productive lives and to improving social outcomes through education. Penn Foster provides career pathways for opportunity youth and adult learners through diverse and affordable online diploma, certificate and degree programs, offered via its high school, career school and college. With more than 44,000 graduates each year, Penn Foster's online and blended learning programs are delivered in a self-paced, competency-based model wrapped by comprehensive academic, professional and personal support and coaching. For more information, visit https://www.pennfoster.edu.

(1) https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2015/01/26/why-are-so-many-college-students-failing-to-gain-job-skills-before-graduation/?utm_term=.fe44528395df