Program Counseling Specialist

Penn Foster High School

Position Summary

The Program Counseling Specialist provides broad academic, personal, college, and career guidance for Penn Foster High School learners, with a strong emphasis on Career Pathways, successful onboarding, learner persistence, and access to wraparound supports. The counseling specialist helps learners understand program expectations, navigate key transition points, connect learning to future goals, and access the right resources when barriers arise.

Working across Academics, Learner Engagement, the College and Career team, instructors, Learner Success Advocates (LSAs), families, and external partners, the counseling specialist develops scalable guidance models, resources, and engagement activities for a large, national learner population. The role supports all learners through systems and programming while providing specialized consultation and targeted guidance for pathway learners and learners with more complex needs.

This position serves as a cross-functional expert in learner onboarding, academic and pathway navigation, college and career planning, family engagement, wraparound services, mental health resource referral, and scalable MTSS supports.

Essential Responsibilities

Learner Onboarding, Navigation & Transition Support

• Design and deliver scalable onboarding resources, orientations, communications, and milestone supports that help learners understand program expectations, available services, pacing, and how to seek help.
• Identify common onboarding and transition barriers and partner with internal teams to improve the early learner experience, especially for under-19 and Career Pathway learners.
• Create transition supports for learners entering pathways, changing programs, returning after inactivity, approaching graduation, or preparing for postsecondary next steps.
• Coordinate milestone communications, learner guidance resources, and support workflows across Academics, Learner Engagement, instructors, LSAs, and the College and Career team.

Career Pathways, College & Career Planning

• Lead the development and implementation of scalable guidance strategies that connect learners’ high school experiences, Career Pathway participation, credentials, and interests to defined post-graduate outcomes.
• Create college-navigation resources covering program selection, admissions, application timelines, financial aid awareness, enrollment steps, transfer considerations, and college readiness.
• Create career-readiness resources covering occupational exploration, industry credentials, employability skills, resumes, interviewing, job search preparation, workplace expectations, and connections to training or employment opportunities.
• Develop communications, workshops, and decision-support tools that clarify pathway requirements, related college programs, career outcomes, and next-step opportunities.
• Partner with the High School Academic Director, College and Career Director, and pathway teams to improve learner engagement, pathway persistence, credential attainment, completion, and transition to post-graduate opportunities.

Learner Support Systems, MTSS & Scalable Tier 3 Support

• Help design scalable Tier 3 support models, including referral criteria, intervention playbooks, decision trees, escalation pathways, communication protocols, and resource libraries that enable LSAs, instructors, and academic leaders to respond consistently to complex learner needs.
• Develop adaptable learner success and transition-planning tools that address academic progress, pathway completion, graduation readiness, college and career decision-making, and postsecondary transitions.
• Partner with LSAs, instructors, the High School Academic Director, and the College and Career Director to coordinate, evaluate, and continuously improve intervention and escalation models.
• Leverage learner data and AI-enabled support tools for exploration, triage, resource navigation, personalized next-step guidance, and identification of emerging learner needs.
• Design scalable supports that reduce unnecessary one-to-one intervention while preserving human expertise for complex decisions and higher-need learners.

Family Engagement & Wraparound Services

• Partner with the High School Academic Director and College and Career Director to develop pathway, college-planning, career-exploration, onboarding, and post-graduation engagement activities for parents and guardians.
• Create scalable family-facing resources, webinars, communications, and events that help families understand program expectations, Career Pathway options, college and training pathways, admissions and financial aid considerations, career opportunities, and transition steps.
• Coordinate family outreach with LSAs and instructors so communication is consistent, responsive, and aligned to learner needs and post-graduate goals.
• Coordinate access to academic, social, community, wellness, and other wraparound resources that may affect learner engagement, persistence, or completion.

Mental Health Resources & Referral Support

• Create, curate, and maintain accessible mental health, wellness, crisis, and community resource materials for learners and families.
• Help establish clear protocols for identifying concerns, documenting actions, escalating urgent situations, and referring learners to qualified external mental health or crisis services.
• Equip LSAs and instructors with approved resources and escalation guidance for responding to learner well-being concerns.

Qualifications

• Master’s degree in School Counseling.
• Three to five years supporting learners in secondary, workforce, or career-connected education environments.
• Experience with college and career advising, postsecondary transition planning, learner success, retention, counseling, or MTSS programs.
• Knowledge of college exploration, admissions, financial aid awareness, credential and training pathways, career development, and workforce transition practices.
• Experience designing support models, intervention workflows, guidance resources, or learner engagement systems.
• Ability to develop and appropriately share mental health and wellness resources, recognize situations requiring escalation, and follow established referral protocols.
• Experience using data to improve learner interventions, guidance programs, and post-graduate outcomes.

Working Conditions & Hiring Process:

• U.S. Work Location Requirement: All employees must reside in and perform work within the United States. We do not support international remote work arrangements for this role.
• Travel Expectations: While this is a remote position, occasional travel may be required for team meetings, company events, conferences, summits, etc. Candidates must be willing and able to travel as needed.
• On-Camera Work Environment: We operate in a highly collaborative, remote, on-camera culture. Employees are expected to be on camera during meetings unless extenuating circumstances apply.
• Recorded Video Interviews: All video interviews conducted during the hiring process will be recorded to support internal hiring consistency and process improvement.
• Background Checks: Employment with Penn Foster Group is contingent upon successfully completing applicable pre-employment screening requirements, which may include verification of employment history, education, and criminal background, where permitted by law.
• Identity Verification (Form I-9): As part of our onboarding process, all hires must complete employment eligibility verification in compliance with federal law. This includes remote Form I-9 verification, which may require an in-person identity verification step with an authorized representative.

About Us: At Penn Foster Group, we are transforming online learning to help learners by uniting Penn Foster, CareerStep, Ashworth College, James Madison High School, the New York Institute of Photography, the New York Institute of Art and Design, and other education platforms. Together, we create an accelerated path to greater economic mobility through real-world skills and knowledge that enable them to achieve long-term success in the workplaces of the future. Our history dates back to 1890 when our founder, Thomas Foster, pioneered distance education by offering training by mail for coal miners to get the necessary skills for safer jobs. Today, with the partners who use our education and training programs, we continue that mission of providing accessible training and education for in-demand skills and are building a workforce that’s prepared for the future job market.

Equal Employment Opportunity: We strive toward Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Penn Foster Group by intentionally building teams that are diverse – in identities, lived experiences, and ideas to create a culture where people feel connected to each other and have a sense of belonging. We value diversity, equity, and inclusion because it is the foundation that enables us to achieve what we set out to do as an organization – from maximizing the number of learners who can reach their goals while giving them the kinds of experiences we want them to have, to becoming the type of company we want to work in.

What We Offer: We offer a robust benefits package that includes medical, dental, vision, flexible spending, generous paid time off, sponsored volunteer opportunities, a 401K with a company match, plus free access to all of our online programs.

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