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Encore Colleges

$25,000 Grants for Boomer-Focused College Programs

In the face of a tough economy, Civic Ventures has teamed up with MetLifeFoundation and the Deerbrook Charitable Trust to award Encore Career Grants to community colleges training boomers for encore careers in health, education and social services.

To date, 40 colleges have received grants that help put boomers to work for the greater good. See all of the colleges

Ready to Retrain for Your Encore Career?

Spotlight: Returning to College in a Tough Economy

As California’s slumping economy hits workers hard, KCET LA profiles Jan Albert (in the second half of the 10 minute segment) as an example of how “downturns can have an upside.” Albert talks about getting her gerontology degree at Coastline College, a 2007 encore college grantee, after being laid-off from her job. Now, she’s running a non-medical caregiving business with her sister.

Watch the PBS video at this link

Click here to watch Jan on ABC.

In the News

How Financial Aid Advisers Can Help Older Students

Posted 07/28/2010 - 11:13am

Many older adults thinking about going back to school have questions about financial aid. In The Chronicle of Higher Education, Beckie Supiano offers helpful tips to financial aid advisers working with mature students, suggesting that they communicate early with students, giving them a complete picture of how the financial aid system works and their options.

by: Anna Kelleher | Read more >>

Speeding Certification for Encore Teachers

Posted 02/26/2010 - 4:57pm

Community colleges are creating new and more flexible pathways to becoming second-career teachers. That’s good news for prospective encore teachers who balk at the requirements of traditional teaching colleges, many of which require four years of full-time study even for those who already have a college degree.

Four-year teaching institutions are still the norm for most, but more alternative pathways to teacher certification are popping up around the country. Many are run by community colleges. These alternative programs often move candidates into their own classrooms after a shorter period of training while continuing studies on nights and weekends. Many pack other benefits as well, such as increased flexibility.

by: Cal Halvorsen | Read more >>

Community College Training Can Boost Worker Pay

Posted 02/16/2010 - 12:01pm

A new report, Graduated Success, shows how one- and two-year community college credentials can, in many cases, deliver graduates higher salaries than four-year degrees. That’s good news for older Americans looking for employment, including millions who want purpose-filled work in the second half of life.

Recognizing that this training paves a vital pathway to an encore career, Civic Ventures and MetLife Foundation award grants to community colleges that are creating programs to retrain experienced adults. Click here to learn about these programs.

by: Terry Nagel | Read more >>

Pathways to Encore Careers: 10 Innovative Community College Programs

Posted 03/02/2008 - 12:49pm

Ten community colleges selected for grants in the first round of the Community College Encore Career project are facilitating career transitions into teaching, nursing, and nonprofit leadership. “Pathways to Encore Careers” details the colleges’ innovative programs.

Collin College near Dallas helped Julie Greene, a former marketing executive, get her certificate to teach math in less than a year.

"I was always hearing about how we’re falling behind in math and science education," says Greene who comes from a family of teachers. “I have a lot of respect for the profession and a passion for learning.”

by: Jennifer Coate | Read more >>

Community Colleges Prepare Boomers for Their Encores

Posted 07/13/2009 - 4:45pm

As a corporate manager, Wylie Schweider started a used car superstore; now he teaches math in Richmond, Va. Jan Albert stopped selling real estate in Southern California and started her own caregiver business. Both made their leaps after taking courses for midlife career switchers at their local community colleges.

Now, new community college programs designed to assist those making encore career transitions are helping Americans in midlife retrain for jobs likely to remain in demand through the economic downturn. The offerings prepare older adults for encore careers as health navigators, math and science teachers, green-energy trainers and other jobs that combine social impact with continued income.

by: Terry Nagel | Read more >>

Boomers Burn the Midnight Oil at Community College Training Programs

Posted 10/29/2009 - 4:47pm

A less-inspired student might have given up, but Winston Chin, 57, wants to be a surgical nurse so badly that he hurries directly from his eight-hour shift as a lab technician to a writing class at Bunker Hill Community College in a Boston suburb.

Here’s the kicker: The class runs from 11:45 p.m. to 2:30 a.m. Chin is one of many older students who are attending courses in the dead of night and the very early hours of the morning because the nation’s community colleges are experiencing enrollment booms, according to Abby Goodnough in The New York Times.

by: Terry Nagel | Read more >>

Obama Taps Community Colleges for Bigger Job-Training Role

Posted 07/15/2009 - 11:33pm

Community colleges are being thrust to the front lines of a large-scale overhaul of the American workforce, the success of which is urgent, crucial and still in doubt.

As part of their efforts to re-skill workers of all ages for jobs that are expected to be in high demand as the economy recovers, the local colleges are increasingly retraining aging baby boomers choosing encore careers that give back of their talent and experience.

That makes the more than 1,000 community colleges around the country connectors not only of younger and older and community and business, but of human abilities to the work that needs to be done.

by: David Bank | Read more >>

Community College Resources

AACC Plus 50 Initiative

Posted 01/26/2009 - 3:30pm

The American Association of Community Colleges’ (AACC) Plus 50 Initiative is a 3.5 year effort to identify a pilot group of two-year institutions that will create or expand campus programs to engage the 50+ population in learning; training/re-training programs; and/or volunteer, civic, service activities.

| Read more >>

American Council on Education

Posted 03/01/2009 - 9:38am

Reinvesting in the Third Age: Older Adults and Higher Education is a two-year research project, funded by the MetLife Foundation, to examine how colleges and universities can more effectively address the factors that drive older adults to postsecondary education to broaden their participation and work with other sectors to meet older adults’ educational needs. More information from the American Council on Education.

by: David Bank | Read more >>

Additional Community College Resources

Posted 03/03/2009 - 11:39am

Articles and publications detailing the emerging role of community colleges in helping boomers transition to encore careers.

by: Judy Goggin | Read more >>

People

Mary Beth Lakin

Mary Beth Lakin is the associate director for special projects in the American Council on Education's Center for Lifelong Learning and is currently the project director for a two-year study, Reinvesting in the Third Age: Older Adults and Higher Education, funded by MetLife Foundation. She has more than 20 years of experience serving adult learners on college and university campuses—as an instructor, academic advisor, and administrator of prior learning assessment programs.
Read Mary Beth's full profile

Discussion

Encore Colleges

The online community of innovative "Encore Colleges" that are pioneering new ways to prepare baby boomers for second (or third!) careers in education, health care and the nonprofit sector. This is an opportunity to share your successes and challenges and learn from colleagues who are also pioneering new ways for adults 50+ to transition to their encore careers — work that matters in the second half of life.

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