Yet, old-school academic philosophy can stifle individual exploration. It tries to fit every round peg into a square hole – presenting information the same way for all learners.

I don’t believe it’s The American College of Financial Services’ place to push one learning concept in a world of many. Instead, The College is focused on driving impact and delivering outcomes – goals best suited to flexibility and optionality with an experience that puts the student in charge.

This is especially needed in today’s current financial climate. Roughly 10,000 Baby Boomers are retiring every day – and have you noticed the storm they must now weather? Millennials are navigating their second recession, and many have significant student loan debt – yet they must plan for the future in the haze of the present.

Financial advice is more important than ever before. It’s no longer enough to pick stocks and bonds – technology can do that. True financial planners must provide tremendous value through their knowledge.

It’s The College’s responsibility to present that knowledge in a format that not only supports classroom success, but professional success years down the line. We don’t want you to memorize content, but retain it through text, video, audio, animation, course discussion, and instructor support – whatever you need to succeed.

That’s the impetus behind Personal Pathway®, The College’s new learning model now available through most of our Chartered Financial Consultant® (ChFC®) and Certified Financial Planner™ (CFP®) education programs, as well as select courses in our Charted Life Underwriter® (CLU®) program.

I’m not here to discuss the what – you can visit our Personal Pathway® page or the ChFC®, CFP®, or CLU® program pages to understand the benefits. I’m here to explain the why – those reasons for a dramatic shift in our course development and delivery. Eventually, The College will offer every designation program course through Personal Pathway®, which demonstrates our belief in the theory and practical application behind its implementation.

The College should not micromanage when, where, and how you learn. Yet, self-study does not fit the learning needs of every student. That’s why we’ve taken the best of our self-study courses and included live and on-demand webinars, new digital textbooks integrated directly into each lesson with enhanced search capabilities and flashcard study tools, rich multimedia lesson reviews, greater instructor support, and engaging discussion forums that allow you to start or join conversations with your peers. And to show our commitment to financial professionals’ education, we’ve eliminated tiered programs within Personal Pathway® and have included all these program enhancements for the same tuition cost.

I invite you to chart your own learning path inside an inclusive learning experience with modality and flexibility, yet also the structure you may crave. Finish 10 weeks of coursework on schedule, while attending every weekly webinar, push through the coursework in seven weeks to finish faster, or put your studies on hold during a two-week crunch at work, catch up with the on-demand webinars, and finish on time.

The goal is to get you through a program faster, while providing you the tools to retain even more of the knowledge you need. We don’t lean into this goal through subjectivity – but rather through copious research, the expertise of a highly-accomplished faculty, and the best-in-practice learning concepts studied and applied for decades by our senior academic leaders. This is just another marker on our mission to becoming one of the nation’s top e-learning institutions, the educational provider for financial professionals across America focused on enhancing their expertise and making a difference in society.

Join us on your Personal Pathway®.