EAB, a leading education firm, has announced the acquisition of Forage, a premier provider of virtual job simulations, to join its talent division, Seramount. This strategic move aims to bridge the gap between college education and career readiness for millions of students by leveraging EAB's unique position to connect employers with a diverse pipeline of qualified early-career talent. Forage offers free online courses designed by top companies, enabling students to explore various career paths and gain real-world skills. The integration of Forage into EAB's services is expected to enhance the recruitment process for companies and provide better career opportunities for students, particularly those from historically underserved groups.



Forage will join the company’s talent division, Seramount, and help employers recruit college students.

WASHINGTON, DC – April 8, 2024 – Seramount’s parent company, leading education firm EAB, announced today that it has reached an agreement to add Forage, the top provider of virtual job simulations, to its suite of solutions designed to help employers build stronger, more inclusive workforces. The acquisition will enable EAB to draw on its unique position serving thousands of colleges and hundreds of companies to help employers identify and hire qualified early-career talent.

“Our corporate partners have shared how challenging and time-consuming it is to hire interns and recent college graduates, especially students from historically underserved groups or campuses where companies lack a physical recruiting presence,” said EAB Chief Executive Officer David Felsenthal. “By joining forces with Forage, we can connect employers to a robust pipeline of diverse students—and provide the 10 million college students we work with better access to career opportunities and a deep understanding of what those options look like in the real world.”

Students worldwide use Forage to experience what it is like to be an accountant, investment banker, software engineer, and more through free online courses designed by top companies such as Citibank, Goldman Sachs, KPMG, and Lululemon. Forage’s interactive job simulations expose students to different career paths, build skills related to specific roles, and prepare students for interviews.

Forage’s corporate customers benefit at every stage of the recruitment process, from building global brand awareness to improving recruitment funnel efficiency to filling hard-to-recruit early-career roles. Companies are more than twice as likely to hire students who take their simulations than those who do not, and nearly 20 percent of participating employers’ early-talent hires are students who have used Forage.

“With EAB, Forage can connect employers with a vast network of future candidates at critical points throughout their college journeys,” said Forage Co-founder and CEO Tom Brunskill. “I am especially excited to embed Forage’s virtual job simulations in Navigate360 and Starfish, EAB’s student success technologies, which will connect millions of students from a wide variety of schools with the world’s leading companies.”

Forage simulations are free and available on demand, which makes them accessible to students for whom a traditional internship is not possible. Nearly 40 percent of US students who use the Forage platform say they are the first in their families to attend college.

Forage’s job simulations will complement the other talent solutions in EAB’s Seramount division, which helps companies build high-performing, inclusive workplaces.

The acquisition is expected to close in the coming weeks.

About EAB

At EAB, our mission is to make education smarter and our communities stronger. We work with more than 2,600 institutions to drive transformative change through data-driven insights and best-in-class capabilities. From kindergarten to college to career, EAB partners with leaders and practitioners to accelerate progress and drive results across enrollment, student success, institutional strategy, and data analytics. We work with each partner differently, tailoring our portfolio of research, technology, and marketing and enrollment solutions to meet the unique needs of every leadership team, as well as the students and employees they serve. Learn more at eab.com.

About Seramount

Seramount is EAB’s talent research, insight, and analytics division dedicated to supporting high-performing, inclusive workplaces. Over four decades, we’ve established a strong, data-driven understanding of the employee experience, which lays the groundwork for everything we do. Seramount partners with over 500 of the world’s most influential companies, large and small, to offer pragmatic solutions including talent sourcing, best practice DEI research, workplace analytics, and employee learning and development. These offerings empower organizations to navigate a dynamic corporate environment and to cultivate a resilient, connected workforce that achieves extraordinary outcomes.

About Forage

Forage is on a mission to bridge the gap between education and career success with its virtual job simulations. Forage’s job simulations are created by the world’s largest employers, giving millions of students the opportunity to demonstrate intent, explore company culture, and hit the ground running with valuable, real-world career skills. By flipping the hire-then-train model, employers benefit from motivated candidates who are 2.16x more likely to receive and accept a job offer. Check out Forage at theforage.com.