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Learning the Curves
Once the province of basket-weavers and belly-dancers, continuing education steps up to help adults navigate serious life challenges
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Business New Haven
4/28/2003
By: Karen Singer
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When times are stressful, the urge to learn can become irresistible - and even an economic necessity.
Increasing enrollments in continuing education programs are one yardstick of the trend.
Long regarded as a bastion for self-enrichment, or in-service training, continuing-ed courses today are increasingly career-related, and targeted toward a broadening range of students.
Over the past few years, say educators and employment counselors, two new groups have joined those in search of job skills.
“A larger percentage of people coming here have advanced degrees, including bachelor's and master's, and that's a huge difference,” points out Laura Beving, director of the One-Step Center in New Haven, which helps job seekers. “A lot of them are displaced workers who have been laid off or have become unemployed recently.”
In addition, older workers are showing up in greater numbers at the center, as well as at the nearby Regional Workforce Development Board (RWDB). Some would prefer to join, or remain, on a payroll, while others are less eager retirees whose nest egg may have been severely eroded by the downturn in the stock market.
“We used to serve primarily welfare recipients, or more randomly unemployed, but in the last 18 months, these two groups - highly skilled and highly educated people, and older workers - have been showing up in higher numbers than in the last ten years,” says RWDB systems development manager Chris Reardon.
“A lot of these individuals have hidden skills they're extremely good at, but haven't been able to perform in their current work,” Reardon adds, “and we try to steer them into those areas.”
Both the One-Step Center and RWDB organizations work with employers who are downsizing and provide career guidance as well as scholarships for vocational training at colleges and universities in the New Have region. Authorized courses are from an ever-changing list in various fields, depending on a person's eligibility and funding availability.
“They refer a lot of people here,” says Jean A. Wihbey, associate dean of learning for corporate and continuing education at Gateway Community College.
Although many schools don't closely track student demographics, administration officials acknowledge these two new groups may help account for surging enrollment in continuing education courses or lifelong learning programs.
Gateway, which targets the educational and training needs of area companies, must remain carefully attuned to the ebb and flow of the job market.
“It's changing,” Wihbey acknowledges. “Companies don't spend dollars to do training when things are tight, but they still have to spend a significant amount of money for essential jobs. Also, when they're anticipating a layoff, a lot of companies will support or subsidize retraining.”
Moreover, she notes, many individuals are pursing career-oriented courses on their own.
“We package programs where people can take a set of courses for a job-related field, such as medical billing, and complete it in under a year. We also try to make them cost as little as possible.”
Computer training is in great demand at the moment, Wihbey says, and new GCC course offerings include Microsoft certification, CISCO expansion/planning and call center/customer service associate.
Another hot area is real estate. Gateway will offer 19 courses for the first time this fall.
Gateway also offers Saturday classes and is developing a weekend program.
Enrollment in business courses, ranging from “how to do a business plan to grant writing is another growth area, especially in the last nine or ten months,” says Wihbey, Enterpreneurship courses, such as those at Gateway and elsewhere, also are in demand these days (see related story).
Computer and accounting courses are gaining in popularity at Southern Connecticut State University these days, along with other courses in education, U.S. history and foreign languages, according to Patricia Whelan, SCSU's director of extended learning.
“Students in continuing education take the same classes as full-time students,” Whelan says.
In addition to the customary high school graduates and students working part-time while earning a degree, Whelan recently has noticed more older students showing up for classes.
“People are coming to school who never had a degree, or who are out of a job,” she says. “They find this a good opportunity to earn a degree in their own field, or another field.
“There are more women than men, and they're going through various life transitions such as job loss, change in family situation or change of career<” Whelan adds. “Some are in people in their 40s, who thought they would have just one career, and that's very difficult.”
The need for speed is another trend Whelan and other administration officials have observed.
“Many students are looking for the quickest way to complete a college degree,” she says, adding that Southern provides several ways to accomplish the task. These include offering online courses and proficiency tests such as the College Level Examination Programs (CLEP), and accepting 30 non-traditional credits.
Albertus Magnus College likewise has made available new, faster learning options.
“While we continue to offer courses that are conducted fully in a classroom setting, we are also offering courses that blend online learning with classroom learning,” explains Annette Bosley, director of continuing education at AMC. A typical accelerated format combines four weeks in the classroom with four weeks of online classes.
The continuing education accelerated degree program is “experiencing an increase in interest by students who want to start or finish a degree, make themselves more valuable to an employer or enhance their qualifications to find a new position,” adds Bosley.
She says that business and economics courses are the most popular offerings these days at AMC, including business management, accounting and management information systems. But human services majors such as sociology and psychology are “increasing tremendously” in popularity. The school offers associate's and bachelor's degrees in 13 majors.
Accounting, general management, computer and liberal arts courses are in vogue at Hamden's Quinnipiac University, according to Mary Wargo, director of part-time and transfer admissions. Most students are in their late 20s, and studying part-time while working in order “to supplement their business knowledge,” Wargo says.
“They're people in the position where they would like to advance with a company, or complete their degree, or already have some experience in an area and want a degree.”
With its focus on lifelong learning, the University of New Haven
is “probably the quintessential continuing education career school,” asserts UNH spokesperson Rick Eaton.
UNH offers around 75 undergraduate and 25 graduate programs, and enrollment is increasing at both levels.
Recently, the most popular undergraduate offerings include criminal justice, hotel and restaurant management, tourism management, general engineering, business (an accelerated group-oriented course meeting on Saturdays), public administration and music and sound recording.
Hot graduate programs at UNH include MBA and executive MBA offerings, forensic science, criminal justice (there's a brand-new and fully booked crime scene investigation course), accounting and financing, executive master of science in engineering management, industrial and organizational psychology, computer science and a teacher training program for non-teachers with undergraduate degrees.
A graduate-level course in homeland security will be available for the first time this autumn at UNH.
For older and/or displaced workers, the Regional Workforce Development Board offers career planning workshops, including stress management, which Reardon notes is especially challenging for men “who have to make the adjustment to being out of work, or are working at a different level.”
RWDB advisors try to help men and women in their 50s and 60s come to grips with a new and very different reality from the one they had imagined. “They come here out of a sense of economic need,” Reardon says. “They had this vision of what their life would be like - and it's not that way.”
For those willing to work, or learn new skills, job opportunities are available in areas such as teaching, retail, manufacturing and health care, including dental assistant and hospital personnel at all levels from nurses to lab technicians, ultra sound and X-ray technicians.
Meanwhile, continuing education for self-enrichment hasn't lost its luster.
Plenty of middle- and high schools in the region offer adult learning classes ranging from basket weaving to yoga.
Gateway has among the most extensive list of such kinds of courses among area colleges and universities.
Interestingly, “The No. 1 personal enrichment program is motorcycle safety,” Wihbey says, adding students include women as well as weekend warriors (the guys who wear business suits during the week but strap on the helmets and leather jackets when they ride their Harleys).
A wine-tasting course is another winner, as are foreign language classes, Wihbey says. Reiki, tai chi and other holistic health courses will soon be added to the mix.
Non-credit courses Gateway this summer include starting a small business, basic photography, boating safety, emergency medical technician (EMT-B), food sanitation certification and bartender certification. BNH
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