Hobsons: Maximizing Success throughout Student’s Learning Lifecycle

CIO VendorCraig Heldman, CEO
“At Hobsons, we believe education advances everyone and everything, creating a continuous cycle of opportunity,” says Craig Heldman, CEO, Hobsons. This passion for education is what fuels everything that Hobsons does—from product development and customer service to thought leadership and corporate citizenship. Since its inception in 1974, the company has grown to serve millions of students across nearly 10,000 schools, colleges, and universities worldwide by helping them make informed decisions about their educational options, including self-discovery, career exploration, academic planning, college and career preparation and admissions. “Our role in serving the education market is to maximize student success and institutional effectiveness. Our solutions allow students to develop personalized academic and career plans based on their unique goals, interests, abilities, and learning styles, and enable institutions to provide advice to students and families, as well as track progress towards their goals,” remarks Heldman.

Hobsons offers a college and career readiness platform, Naviance, which serves K-12 students by helping them tie academic achievement to post-secondary goals. The solution empowers students and families to connect what students are doing in school to long-term life goals, and provides schools and districts with the information they need to help students make informed decisions about college and career choices. With Naviance, students collaborate with school staff to create a plan for their future that leverages their individual strengths, interests and learning styles, and explore college and career options based on their results. “We want to help students and families control their own path, and take ownership of their learning,” says Heldman. “We want to help match students to post-secondary options that are the right fit.”
With thousands of higher education options available, beginning the search for the right college or university can be a daunting task for many students. Hobsons’ Radius solution makes the search easier for students by allowing them to fill out interest forms on the sites of colleges and universities that interest them, and receive pertinent information from institutions, or directly connect with staff members from those institutions. Radius then allows higher education admissions professionals and academic advisors to manage and track all communications to students from first point of inquiry through graduation to provide a valuable experience during all stages of the student lifecycle.

At Hobsons, education is more than just our business; it’s our passion

In order to demonstrate its impact on student success, Hobsons enables institutions to more effectively track results and report on their progress, and collaborates closely with organizations like The National Student Clearing House, the largest source for education verification and student educational outcomes research. This collaboration helps Hobsons customers to analyze results and determine how they can improve student outcomes.

With its expertise in effectively dealing with the challenges faced by K-12 and higher education, in the near future, Hobsons will continue to seek opportunities to expand its services to serve students and insitutions in improving outcomes.


Cincinnati, OH

Craig Heldman, CEO
