It’s clear that adult learners will play an important role in boosting enrollment at community colleges. While most administrators are inexplicably fixated on the number of high school graduates in the pipeline, there are literally millions of potential adult learners being overlooked.
The population of Washtenaw County has grown by 30% since 1990, but Ann Arbor’s population has increased only by 10%. According to the US Census Bureau, two-thirds of Washtenaw County’s population is between the ages of 18 and 65. (That’s about 250,000 people.) Most adults over the age of 25 (95.7%) have a high school diploma. Among those same adults, 57.2% have a bachelor’s degree or higher. Which means that almost 40% of adults over the age of 25 in Washtenaw County have a high school diploma but do not have a bachelor’s degree.
That’s a pretty big target.
The catch is that the people in this target market are adults, with adult concerns and adult limitations. They’re not interested in on-campus housing, or e-sports, or regular sports for that matter. They pay the taxes that support WCC. They probably have children, and they have a limited amount of free time. They’re looking to improve their income potential.
Short-term certificates and entry-level training programs will not help this cohort achieve their goals because they’re not looking for entry level positions. And they can’t afford to be wrong about where and how they invest their money and their time.
So what is WCC doing to recruit adult learners?
The pool of adult learners is larger
How about creating tools to help adult learners who have already earned a bachelor’s degree understand what pairing certain certificates with their existing degree could do for them?
What about developing “early intervention” programs for adults who are employed but are worried about losing their jobs? Or who simply want to change careers in the quickest and most efficient way possible?
Or developing programs for women re-entering the workforce after having children or going through a divorce?
Right now, WCC is not a good resource for these prospective adult learners. Its degrees do not produce enough income to support families. Or even permit single individuals to afford to live in Washtenaw County. WCC must be a viable resource for everyone. It cannot simply focus on dual-enrolled high school students and traditional college-age students. Nor can we continue to waste effort and resources on recruiting and educating out-of-district students (at a huge discount) who will contribute nothing to Washtenaw County.
When the administration does something like closing the on-campus childcare facility, it makes the choice to attend school difficult and unattractive. When the administration diverts money meant for new program development to hot tub and pool repairs at the Health and Fitness Center, that negatively impacts people and limits their options. (Adult learners need more – not fewer – options when it comes to career moves.)
We need an administration at WCC that can demonstrate that it both understands the challenges that adult learners face and is willing to address them in meaningful ways. That’s not something we have right now, and the WCC enrollment shows that.
Photo Credit: Christoper Connell , via Flickr
