Aligning Continuing Education Resources: How to Capture the Lifelong Learner

To meet changing employment demands, more individuals than ever before are returning to school to renew or enhance skills throughout their lifetime. These students typically have no allegiance to a specific college or university, but instead focus their search on a particular program or course. Though most higher education institutions offer a Continuing Education (CE) program to its community, it is usually a secondary focus of the institution. However, today's economic conditions continue to force public and private institutions to make severe budget cuts to both academic and social programs on campus. Colleges and universities can benefit from taking a renewed strategic look at their CE programs resulting in a surprisingly positive impact on their financial bottom line. How can CE programs and its learners become strategically important to your institution? It's simple: Adult learners can provide stable and sizeable revenue. Once you capture interest and successfully retain it, these students transform into lifelong learners and consistently return to your institution as they pursue their education goals. There are an estimated go million lifelong learners in the United States today seeking to improve skills, renew or achieve certifications, and/or change career paths-representing a huge potential for your institution. But how can your institution capitalize on this potential? The initial step is to rethink your approach to developing your CE program. We will review several strategics to create a program that will meet your community's demands. And that is the key-meet your community's diverse needs. STEP 1 Identifying Your Community: The Needs of Your Lifelong Learners In order to capture the lifelong learner, your institution must first identify the multifaceted community you serve and clearly understand its needs. Most likely, your community is comprised of more than just casual students taking community services-type classes like the proverbial basket weaving and horticulture. Today s lifelong learners have more specific educational agendas to follow, from workforce development to corporate training and professional certifications. In order to meet their needs, you must create personas to understand who they are and what they care about. What industries are they from? How technology savvy are they? Does your community have any specific needs to fill? Docs your community require more nurses or increased computer literacy? Much of this information can be found in public resources such as: U.S. Census, county government Web sites, and county and state chambers of commerce. Consumer research analysts and organizations are great sources of information for existing demographic reports and tailored surveys. You can also locate valuable demographic information in your institution's database. Once you have identified and defined the many facets of your community, your institution must develop a comprehensive list of the personas' education requirements. Then, evaluate your current business model to determine if it can effectively support these new community needs. STEP 2 Aligning Key Business Processes to Support Lifelong Learning Needs In order to effectively reorganize and enhance your CE program, it is important to evaluate and align several key business processes: curriculum planning, delivery, pricing, and outreach. To be successful, these processes must be flexible and responsive to lifelong learning needs. There are many models to choose from in each category, and it is important to assess the alternatives to see which will help you achieve your particular goals. Keep an open mind. Sometimes it may be useful to utilize several methods to target the various groups in your community. CURRICULUM PLANNING When evaluating your current method of curriculum planning, you should first assess the inventory of your existing curriculum. Find out which courses and programs are popular and most importantly why. …