Expansion leads to 300 more jobs for East Hills company

Pearson Government Solutions has nearly 14,000 employees

When Terry Kroshus tries to put into perspective the growth Pearson Government Solutions has experienced since 1997, he is in awe.

“Our size has tripled,” said Kroshus, director of the Lawrence call center that employs nearly 14,000 workers who handle a variety of call center contracts, primarily for government agencies. “What we are trying to do is offer employment opportunities for a variety of individuals, and also give back to community at the same time.”

That plan seems to be working because Pearson, 3833 Greenway Drive, became the largest private employer in Lawrence last year, trailing only public job providers in Kansas University and the Lawrence school district.

The company has added nearly 300 jobs since it unveiled its 45,000-square-foot expansion at East Hills Business Park offices last summer. Kroshus said a few more jobs could be opening in the next few months depending on government sanctions and policies.

“I think we’ll create a few more next month, but with the government you just never know for certain,” he said.

In January the Arlington, Va.,-based company landed a $180 million contract with the U.S. Department of Education.

“It is definitely good news for Pearson Government Solutions, and usually anything that is good news for the company is good news for Lawrence because we have a lot of operations down there,” said company spokesman Dave Hakensen.

The new work will primarily involve call center activities related to questions about the government’s student loan programs. Lawrence employees will operate a toll-free telephone help line and make outbound calls to student loan customers who have missed a payment or violated other terms of their loan agreement.

The contract, which includes five one-year renewal periods beyond the initial five years, continues a long relationship between Pearson and the Department of Education.

The bulk of Pearson’s other governmental contracts it received the past year was an extension of a large contract with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to run a telephone help line answering questions about Medicare and Medicaid programs.

“It’s an extension of what we’ve been doing 3 or 4 years here,” Kroshus said.

Kroshus said the new hires were a mix of about 50 percent full-time employees and 50 percent temporary or part-time workers.

Mac Curtis, company president and CEO, said Pearson had made Lawrence a target for frequent expansion primarily because it liked the quality of the work force.

“This is a showcase facility for our company,” Curtis said. “We say if we can get a potential customer to come to Kansas and see our facility here and our people here, the chances of us winning that contract go up exponentially.”