Stepful buys Missouri nursing school to expand degree pathways

Stepful has acquired the 45-year-old St. Louis College of Health Careers and rebranded it as Stepful College, giving the workforce training company its first ABHES-accredited, degree-granting institution. The deal is meant to help employers build healthcare talent pipelines from entry-level training through nursing and other degree programs, as labor shortages persist.

Why it matters: - Stepful now has a degree-granting, ABHES-accredited college in its portfolio for the first time. - The acquisition extends Stepful’s model beyond certificate programs into nursing, respiratory therapy and other roles that require formal degrees. - Employers using Stepful can now connect frontline training with degree pathways inside a single pipeline. - The move comes as healthcare systems face shortages in nursing, surgical technology, radiology and other hard-to-fill jobs.

What happened: - Stepful acquired St. Louis College of Health Careers, a 45-year-old Missouri school with campuses in downtown St. Louis and Fenton. - The college began operating as Stepful College on Aug. 25, 2026. - Stepful said the acquisition closed in December 2025. - The company announced the deal on Sept. 15, 2026.

The details: - St. Louis College of Health Careers was founded in 1981 by Steve Barsam and Rush Robinson. - The school has graduated more than 3,000 students who now work across the St. Louis metro area. - Stepful said the acquisition expands its reach into nursing, respiratory therapy and other degree-dependent roles. - Stepful plans to scale Stepful College’s existing nursing and respiratory therapy degree programs nationally. - Stepful also plans to launch new programs. - The student experience will use Stepful’s proprietary learning technology and student support model for working adults. - Stepful employer partners include Providence and Mount Sinai. - Those partners can now embed Stepful College degree programs alongside Stepful’s non-degree training portfolio. - That portfolio includes Medical Assistant, Surgical Tech, Patient Care Tech, Pharmacy Tech and Sterile Processing programs. - Stepful said it has now graduated more than 40,000 students across its full portfolio. - Stepful also recently announced a Series C round to scale its AI-powered School-as-a-Service healthcare training platform.

Between the lines: - Stepful is building a fuller ladder from entry-level healthcare training to degree credentials. - That could make the company more useful to health systems that want to fill jobs faster and keep workers moving up internally. - The acquisition also positions Stepful to compete in a part of the talent pipeline where accredited program capacity is shrinking. - The company highlighted market pressure from fewer surgical technology programs, declining radiologic technology enrollment and record nursing school rejections.

What's next: - Stepful plans to take Stepful College’s degree programs beyond Missouri. - The company expects to add new degree offerings over time. - Employers may begin using Stepful College alongside Stepful’s other training programs as part of one workforce pipeline. - Stepful is likely to lean on its technology platform and employer relationships to scale the model nationally.

The bottom line: - Stepful is turning a local nursing school into a national degree pathway for healthcare employers and working adults.