Wanting to change career paths or because of the economy, adult learners 50 and older are heading back to school. Many are looking for encore careers combining continued income with personal fulfillment and social impact to meet important community needs. Increasingly, these individuals are approaching community colleges for help transitioning to such fields as education, health care, social services and emerging green jobs.

Community colleges are picking up on this trend. Recipients of Civic Ventures Community College Encore Career Grants are creating programs that leverage the life experience these adults bring while understanding that boomers, in general, learn differently from younger students.

Below is a list of resources to help community college administrators adapt programs to the unique needs of 50-plus students.

Program Adaptations for Plus-50 Encore Learners:

• Advancing Learning for Our Diverse Adult Population. Educational Testing Service, 2010. Provides a good background on the difficulties that older learners face in higher education and discusses instructional techniques and academic advising for adult students.
• Aligning Lifelong Learning Programs and Outcomes with Employer Needs: What Research Recommends for Colleges. Council for Adult & Experiential Learning (CAEL), 2007. Discusses how to create adult learning programs that fit with what employers want.
• Boomers Go to College. Portland Community College (PCC), 2007. Discusses a survey of over 1,300 PCC students, ages 40 and older, which examined their motivations and goals; obstacles to achieving goals; awareness and efficacy of support services; academic advising for older students; and course availability, format, and scheduling. This resource then provides specific recommendations that community colleges can take to ensure a better experience – and higher completion rates – for older learners.
• Business Community Outreach Toolkit. American Association of Community Colleges (AACC). Encore college program planners who want to incorporate internships, fellowships or other experiential work force education into the curriculum may find this resource helpful. This tool kit can help you make connections with the for-profit, nonprofit, education and health care communities. These relationships can help you develop courses that meet local business needs, provide locations for field trips and internships, and ultimately find jobs for your plus 50 program completers.
• Fueling the Race to Postsecondary Success: A 48-Institution Study of Prior Learning Assessment and Adult Student Outcomes. CAEL, 2010. Examines academic outcomes for students who receive credits for prior learning.
• Learning Environment for the Plus 50 Learner (PowerPoint presentation). AACC. Discusses methods to create a good learning environment for older students.
• Pathways to Encore Careers. Civic Ventures, 2008. Provides ten key attributes to a successful encore college program along with ten case studies of community colleges that are preparing boomers for work in education, health care and social services.
• The Plus 50 Initiative: Standards of Excellence. AACC, 2010. Describes the essential, core program elements that need to be in place for a plus 50 program to succeed and become sustainable. It contains guidelines that community colleges can reference as they innovate and grow their own programming for plus 50 learners.
• Plus 50 Students: Tapping Into a Growing Market. AACC. Outlines why community colleges are attractive to plus-50 students and explains how community colleges can become places for them to flourish.
• Program and Service Ideas. AACC, 2009. Lists programs and adaptations for 50-plus learners implemented by community colleges across the country.
• Reinvesting in the Third Age: Older Adults and Higher Education. American Council on Education, 2007-2008. This is a two-part series: Framing New Terrain: Older Adults & Higher Education (2007) profiles what drives lifelong learning for older adults. Mapping New Directions: Higher Education for Older Adults (2008) examines how colleges can connect with older adults.
• Serving Adult Learners in Higher Education: Principles of Effectiveness. CAEL, 2000. Summarizes the unique education needs of adult learners and strategies for serving such students.

Andragogy – Adult Learning Theory:

Andragogy focuses on how adults learn. Below are a few resources that cover adult learning theory and teaching practice, which is helpful for course and program creation.

• Conner, M.L. Andragogy and Pedagogy. Ageless Learner, 2004. Compares andragogy and pedagogy and gives an easy-to-understand description of adult learning theory.
• Knowles, M.S. The Adult Learner: A Neglected Species. Gulf Publishing Company, 1990. The seminal book in andragogy.
• Knowles, M.S. Designs for Adult Learning. American Society for Teaching and Development, 1995. Provides example course and workshop designs for adult learners.

Additional resources:

• The American Association of Community Colleges’ Plus 50 Initiative. Of special note is the Initiative's Library of Resources, which has reports, articles and promising practice guides that cover how older adults successfully learn, in addition to noteworthy community college trends and news articles that relate to adult learners.
• American Council on Education
• The Council for Adult & Experiential Learning

To learn more about the Civic Ventures Encore College Initiative, click here.