Professional Diversity Network, Inc. (NASDAQ:IPDN) (“PDN” or
the “Company”), a global developer and operator of online and
in-person networks that provide access to networking, training,
educational and employment opportunities for diverse individuals,
announced the commencement of its international education services
business, through the formation of a new U.S. subsidiary and
partnership with Jiangxi Ji’An College in China. Combined,
these developments will work to enable the Company to provide
educational opportunities to Chinese students who seek a joint
international degree program between U.S. schools and a Chinese
school, international vocational training certificate program,
students’ international study tour and other programs.
Highlights of Developments
- On June 26, 2017, PDN finalized the formation of AETSI, Inc., a
Delaware wholly-owned subsidiary which will operate the U.S. side
of the Company’s international education services division.
- On July 4, 2017, PDN (China) International Cultural Development
Company, Limited, the Company’s wholly-owned Chinese subsidiary,
finalized a partnership with Ji’An College in China to deliver
educational services to Chinese students seeking an international
joint degree program, international vocational training certificate
program, students’ international study tour and other
programs.
- The Company is in negotiations with several U.S. schools and
expects to finalize its choice of a U.S. college or university
partner in the near future.
- The Company expects its partnership to service part of the
large demand for career based education in China and benefit
economically from fees relating to advising students from
application to graduation and ultimately for career placement
activities.
Today’s announcement continues the Company’s
delivery on its expectations regarding its new business operations
in China. PDN has previously announced its plans to commence
business operations in three Chinese market sectors: (1) education
and training for business people; (2) networking, skills and
lifestyle services for successful women through the Company’s
International Association of Women (“IAW”); and (3) international
education services.
First, on June 26, 2017, the Company updated its
previous announcements on the success of what have now been six
“Shared Economy Events,” the venue through which PDN is providing
for-profit education and training for Chinese business people.
Second, the Company has launched its services
for successful Chinese women by holding its first IAW event in
China at the end of June. The Company will disclose details
in a separate release.
Now, the Company announces that its business in
the third China market sector it identified – the provision of
secondary school international education services – is well
underway. The provision of these services requires schools in
the U.S. and China to partner with PDN. The Company’s
wholly-owned China subsidiary, PDN (China) International Cultural
Development Company Limited (“PDN China”), has been working to
secure the correct China partner school. That work culminated
on July 4, 2017, with a formal partnership between PDN China and
Jiangxi Ji’An College. A description of the partnership and
its closing ceremony is included in the enclosed Chinese press
release, which has been translated below for English-speaking
readers and which will be released in China shortly after this
release in the U.S.
This partnership provides the Company with the
appropriate China education partner to help provide a supply of
Chinese students seeking joint-degree programs, as well as with the
expertise to develop and deliver a curriculum, which will be built
and provided in cooperation with a U.S. education partner. Due to
the Chinese government’s identification of nursing as a key sector
for strategic development, the Company intends to first focus on
joint nursing education using Jiangxi Ji’An College and its U.S.
partner school. The Company’s recent formation of its new,
wholly-owned U.S. subsidiary, AETSI, Inc. (the Association of
Education and Training Schools International, or “AETSI”), allows
the Company to formalize an agreement with a U.S. school or
schools, the negotiations for which are already in progress and
expected to be complete by the end of July. PDN anticipates
that it will begin to deliver these international education
services during the 2017 academic year.
Jim Kirsch, PDN’s Executive Co-Chairman, said
“We could not be more pleased with our progress and the delivery on
our commitment to our shareholders. We identified three
Chinese market sectors and, with today’s announcement, are
operating in each. Our internal team has come together to
provide the ideas, infrastructure and execution necessary to
operate our new businesses, and we are all excited at the prospect
of delivering results to our shareholders as we mature these new
business lines.”
Text of Chinese Press Release – PDN China
and Jiangxi Ji’An College
Based on Belt and Road Initiative strategy, PDN
China works together with Ji’An College
On the morning of July 4th, 2017, Jiangxi Ji’An College held a
strategic cooperation ceremony with PDN (China) International
Cultural Development Company Limited, which is designed to provide
international vocational education. The ceremony reflected
the official launch of an international cooperation project in
domestic vocational education. Present at the event were Li Jialin,
vice-principal of Ji’An College, Zhou Binyan, deputy secretary,
Xiao Zhuqing, vice-principal, Song Jingbo, Chairman of PDN (China)
International Cultural Development Company Limited, Wang Maoji,
President of PDN (China) International Cultural Development Company
Limited, Zhang Lin, chief planner and general producer of China's
Millennium Culture Project as well as chief editor of China's
Patriotism Educational Network and other leaders, as well as guests
and media members.
The parties’ agreement is designed to allow them to partner on:
an international cooperative education program, international
vocational training certificate program, international study tour
project, international volunteer participation activity program,
faculty and management personnel foreign training and inspection
program, international medical and high-end nursing program and
other relevant issues of international education and training. This
has paved the way for what PDN believes to be the sustainable,
healthy development of PDN (China) Vocational Education
International Cooperation Project while remaining consistent with
China’s national strategic layout.
Ji’An College, which was established upon approval of Jiangxi
Provincial Government in February of 2014, is a public college and
university for junior college diploma-level education in
industrial, agricultural, business, art, and normal studies, and is
registered by Ministry of Education. In accordance with the
positioning plan as Mountainous Campus with Luling Academic
Institute to construct the campus, the college is located in Ji’An
South Avenue in the center of Ji’An City with accommodation for
15,000 students. Ji’An College was chartered to deepen the reform
of higher vocational education under the state council, to
implement ideas, to further the innovative vocational education
reform, to accelerate the transformation and upgrade vocational
education, and to improve the quality of vocational education
colleges, as well as to serve China and its people. Ji’An
College works with PDN (China) school enterprises to take the lead
in the country for the exploration and research in brand new
concepts, models and contents in higher vocational education school
faculty, subject setting and student learning, as well as to
strengthen international cooperation in education and inject fresh
energy to the vocational education for our country.
PDN (China) International Cultural Development Company Limited
is a wholly-owned subsidiary founded in China by Professional
Diversity Network, Inc., which is listed in America NASDAQ as IPDN.
The company, with its commitment to the construction of
"international education ecosystem and cultural social platform”,
intends to provide customers with the internationalization of
education, training and service as the core, to integrate of global
resources across the industry, is an international social platform
for International Association of Women, high-end business training
and services, education and international cooperation. In order to
speed up the vocational education reform of our country, to promote
vocational education transformation and upgrading, to realize the
integration of educational resources, PDN (China) intends to
leverage the national "Belt and Road Initiative" strategy to
implement international cooperation projects in vocational
education nationwide. It will lay a solid foundation for our
country to realize the Chinese dream as soon as possible and build
a firm foundation for cultivating professional, sophisticated and
elite prodigies. PDN China will work closely with Ji'An College to
use modern advanced vocational education concept which highlights
the "combination of engineering, integration of production and
education”, to explore modern vocational education personnel
training modes, to deepen the school/enterprise cooperation, to
build internal and external training bases, provide independent
colleges and professional characteristics and to create a high
level of part-time teachers.
At the National Conference of vocational education, General
Secretary Xi once said: "we must firmly grasp the development
direction of running service, promoting employment, deepening
institutional reform and innovation at all levels of various types
of vocational education mode. We must adhere to the integration of
production and education, school enterprise cooperation and we have
to stick to the concept of combination of engineering and practice,
learning by doing and thus guide the community in particular
industries and enterprises to actively support vocational education
as well as make great efforts to build vocational education system
with Chinese characteristics. Efforts should be made to increase
support for vocational education in rural areas, ethnic minority
areas and poverty-stricken areas so as to enable everyone to have
opportunities for nourishing their life.” Strategic cooperation
between PDN (China) and Ji'An College gives full play to their
respective advantages and to achieve a win-win situation. The two
parties intend to improve vocational skills and cultivate a high
integration in vocational spirit. The development of higher
vocational education is in response to the call of the country. The
two parties will take advantage of “Belt and Road Initiative"
strategy and combine import and export strategy to integrate
international education resources. With school enterprise
cooperation as the core, they insist on promoting employment as the
orientation of running a school, and strive to improve the level of
training skilled personnel, so as to create a distinctive teaching
staff with distinctive characteristics of vocational education.
About Professional Diversity Network (PDN)
Professional Diversity Network, Inc. (PDN) is a
global developer and operator of online and in-person networks that
provides access to networking, training, educational and employment
opportunities for diverse professionals. We operate subsidiaries in
the United States and China including National Association of
Professional Women (NAPW), which is one of the largest, most
recognized networking organizations of professional women in the
country, spanning more than 200 industries and professions, and
Noble Voice, a career placement and career counseling call center.
Through an online platform and our relationship recruitment
affinity groups, we provide our employer clients a means to
identify and acquire diverse talent and assist them with their
efforts to comply with the Equal Employment Opportunity Office of
Federal Contract Compliance Program. Our mission is to utilize the
collective strength of our affiliate companies, members, partners
and unique proprietary platform to be the standard in
business diversity recruiting, networking and professional
development for women, minorities, veterans, LGBT and disabled
persons globally.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains certain
forward-looking statements based on our current expectations,
forecasts and assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties.
This release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation
of offers to buy any securities of any entity. Forward-looking
statements in this release are based on information available to us
as of the date hereof. Our actual results may differ materially
from those stated or implied in such forward-looking statements,
due to risks and uncertainties associated with our business, which
include the risk factors disclosed in our most recently filed
Annual Report on Form 10-K and in our subsequent filings with the
Securities and Exchange Commission. Forward-looking statements
include statements regarding our expectations, beliefs, intentions
or strategies regarding the future and can be identified by
forward-looking words such as "anticipate," "believe," "could,"
"estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," “plan,” "should," and
"would" or similar words. We assume no obligation to update the
information included in this press release, whether as a result of
new information, future events or otherwise. Our most recently
filed Annual Report on Form 10-K, together with this press release
and the financial information contained herein, are available on
our website, www.prodivnet.com. Please click on "Investor
Relations."
CONTACT: Professional Diversity Network, Inc.
Chris Wesser – EVP and Secretary
cwesser@prodivnet.com
516-659-8560
Jim Kirsch – Executive Co-Chairman
jkirsch@prodivnet.com
312-614-9021
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