Federal Prison Industries, a division of the Department of Justice, needed a way to simplify and centralize their learning and development. They wanted to meet their learners where they were and help develop crucial skills needed for growth. Cornerstone Learning made it easy.
They also partnered with eSkillz to help implement Cornerstone Learning. eSkillz continues to be their outsourced administration, and end-user live support partner.
The challenge
FPI's learning and development function faces several obstacles. The workforce was geographically distributed across dozens of correctional facilities, many which are in remote locations, and the very nature of those sites creates additional barriers. Connectivity and technical capabilities vary widely depending on where a prison is located, making it difficult to deliver consistent learning experiences across the organization.
The isolation runs deeper than geography. Specialized professionals, such as quality managers, are typically placed one per location, meaning they have no in-person peer community to turn to when pursuing career growth. Without a shared platform to engage through, those professionals were effectively working in silos and unable to benchmark their growth, share best practices, or connect meaningfully around professional development. Lin Burton, Chief Learning Officer at Federal Prison Industries says, "our quality managers, there's only one at each location. And so as a professional group, they're very isolated, and that presents some really interesting challenges when it comes to learning and development."
Why Cornerstone
When FPI implemented Cornerstone, what rose to the surface most immediately was not a specific feature; it was the power of connection. For the first time, staff members who had never been able to engage as a professional community could see where they stood in their development, have meaningful conversations about growth, and access real-time data on what they had completed and where they were headed.
Equally important was the partnership ecosystem that came alongside the platform. Burton is clear that Cornerstone's value at FPI is not just technological; it is relational. The organization works closely with eSkillz, a Cornerstone partner and Burton notes, "I can't imagine where we would be if we didn't have those relationships in place. It's made a difference and actually comprises half of my team at this point."
The results
One trusted source for learning
Before Cornerstone, FPI's staff had no single, reliable place to go for their learning needs. The platform resolved that immediately. Having one dependable platform, where employees can find content, track their progress, and plan their development, has built confidence and consistency across the organization.
Analytics that drive decisions
The Cornerstone analytics capabilities have been transformative for Burton's team and the subject matter experts they support. Historically, answering a question as fundamental as "how many people have taken this course and where are they located?" Burton says "that would've been a week-long exercise in the past for me, and it changed it to less than an hour. Answering back to the customer so quickly means they're gaining confidence in what they can get and receive."
Burton also values the way analytics scales with organizational maturity, allowing users to deepen their engagement with data as their confidence grows and making it accessible to subject matter experts who may not have a background in reporting and analysis.
Extending training beyond the classroom
One of the most meaningful outcomes of FPI's Cornerstone implementation has been its reach beyond the 800 staff members who manage daily factory operations. The quality and rigor of the training content developed inside Cornerstone has allowed FPI to package and extend that material to the more than 11,000 incarcerated individuals who are actively preparing to return to their communities.
A leadership mindset shift
Perhaps the most telling indicator of success is the change in how FPI's senior leaders engage with learning data. Where conversations once focused narrowly on compliance, making sure employees completed required training, leadership is now asking entirely different questions. Burton says "they're more looking into what performance needs are and less into what compliance needs are, and that's a huge shift. It's a people shift, which is really important in the work that we do."
That evolution, from checking boxes to building capability, represents the kind of cultural transformation that learning leaders strive for. For Federal Prison Industries, Cornerstone has been the catalyst.
