|
|
|
Never Too Late To Learn
Older students get a new lease on life, and career, by returning to school
|
Business New Haven
08/04/2003
By: Karen Singer
|
At an age when others have begun to contemplate retirement, many men and women over 40 are returning to the classroom to improve their career skills.
Swelling unemployment and diminishing job security are fueling the trend, say New Haven-area school officials and career counselors.
Some older students are going it alone, while others have the support — and financial backing — of their companies.
Returning to school can be a daunting experience for these folks — but an exhilarating one, too.
"We’re in the transformation business," explains Ann Oakley Cohen, who as program coordinator for the Workforce Development Center at Gateway Community College frequently counsels older unemployed or soon-to-be-downsized students. "They’re excited about changing careers or upgrading their skills, but nervous about going back to classes."
They’re also goal-oriented and in many cases "feel like their lives have been on hold for a while," Oakley says, adding "many of them never expected to be looking for work at this point in their lives."
According to Laura Beving, director of the One-Step Center in New Haven, many older clients are on a "quest to gain some sort of computer literacy." Though they probably have at least basic computer skills, they don’t have the proficiency needed compete with "younger people who have been keyboarding since third grade," says Beving.
"What’s also striking about this age cohort is the amount of soul-searching they go through" in their efforts to enhance or change careers, Beving says. "Some might be working for employers in jobs that aren’t fulfilling and are looking for positions that fit more with their view of themselves."
Sometimes the schooling pays off with promotions or a better job.
But even those struggling to put their classroom experience to work will say with a chuckle that it is possible to teach an old dog new tricks.
Edward J. Drew takes pride in his ability to use education to enhance his work skills.
"I always try to project ahead," says Drew, 50, a senior director at the United Illuminating Co. (UI). In 2002 he completed an executive master’s in business administration degree at the University of New Haven.
Drew originally earned a bachelor’s degree in law enforcement at UNH in the 1970s and a master’s there in the 1980s. Meanwhile, he spent several years working as a New Haven police officer. He left, as a lieutenant, in 1985, to become corporate security director for UI.
By the mid-1990s his responsibilities, including managing projects having to do business process re-engineering, and his skills caught the attention of company president Anthony Vallillo, who promoted him to the position of senior director.
Around that time Drew realized that although he always enjoyed business, he could use some formal training.
"I approached my boss and told him I wanted to expand my horizons," Drew says. UI was very supportive, and agreed to help pick up the tab which had a total cost of $30,000 — through its tuition-reimbursement program.
Drew says his wife and children also supported his scholastic endeavor, which entailed one day a week in a six-hour class, and weekends "totally consumed" with schoolwork. Although the going was tough at times, he says, he especially enjoyed discussions with fellow classmates, who hailed from a variety of business backgrounds.
"It was well worth the effort," Drew says, adding, "It truly has helped my career in terms of expanding my business knowledge and making me much better prepared."
After several decades spent in publishing and public relations, Robert Wilder is embarking on a totally new career path.
He’s enrolled in a two-year radiography program at Gateway Community College, and hopes to work as a hospital X-ray technician, performing diagnostics.
Wilder, 51, began contemplating a change earlier this year in response to cataclysmic changes in the plastics industry. Writing opportunities were rapidly disappearing, along with trade journals and trade shows, as work moved overseas to places like China.
"I looked into two other areas — information technology and legal investigator — but found there was not a lot of demand," he says.
When contemplating how best to deploy his skills, Wilder says he wanted a change from the often solitary life of a writer to a job where he could interact with people.
He explains that his wife, a corporate attorney, and married daughter heartily endorse his educational plan, which will cost him about $4,000 a year.
Wilder already has taken two courses at Gateway to help prepare for the intense radiography program, which starts in September. Although he hadn’t been in a classroom since completing a bachelor’s degree in 1974 at a college in New York state, Wilder says he has quickly adapted to his new role as student.
"I love it," he says. "I’ve always enjoyed learning."
Last year Debbie Carney enrolled in the master’s in health administration (MHA) program at Quinnipiac University to upgrade her business skills and enhance her marketability.
As director of finance for Evergreen Woods, a continuing-care community in Branford, the 48-year-old Carney felt she had been away from the classroom for too long.
"I just thought it was time for me to go back to school," Carney says. "When you’ve been out of college for 20 years, it’s important to keep up to date in finance, and also to hone my skills so I can move up to the next level in health administration."
Timing also played an important role in her decision. "I’d just sent my older daughter off to college, and my younger one will soon be leaving the nest," she says.
Carney studied biology and medical technology as an undergraduate, earning a bachelor of science degree from the State University of New York in 1977. She also earned an MBA from Boston University in 1983, while her husband was stationed at a naval base in North Carolina. "Professors were flown down to the base, where I studied with one other woman and 40 officers," she recalls.
Carney has lived in Connecticut since the mid-1980s, and most of her career has been in the health-care field, including jobs at doctor’s offices and skilled nursing facilities.
The MHA program requires 13 courses and two internships. "I was really lucky because they waived eight of the courses," Carney says.
The remaining five are not exactly cheap — a bit more than $1,500 per course — but a resident-funded scholarship fund at Evergreen Woods is picking up the tab.
Some courses already are relevant to her work. A recent law class, for instance, enabled her to bone up on new privacy protection laws, particularly those pertaining to the elderly.
Carney has been taking one course at a time, but is contemplating speeding up the pace. She expects to graduate by the spring of 2005.
Carney acknowledges the first day of the first class was scary.
"I was a little intimidated walking into a class of 24-year-olds," she says. She was afraid her learning skills were too old, but quickly discovered they are not so rusty as she’d feared.
"I have to work a little harder," she says, "but I’m enjoying it."
Robert Russell sometimes feels as though he is in a race against time.
Russell is enrolled in the executive master of science program at the University of New Haven, a course he hopes will improve his job prospects, which are challenging at the moment.
Russell, a 59-year-old industrial engineer, works at Standard Motors, an automotive replacement parts company that has undergone major ownership changes in recent years. The Branford plant where he works is scheduled to close next spring, and like other employees, Russell is looking for work via Web sites and professional societies. He wants to remain in Connecticut, preferably the New Haven area.
He hasn’t been in school since 1979, when he earned a master’s degree in industrial engineering. He has taken eight courses since starting the UNH master’s program in September 2002, and expects to graduate next August.
The hardest part to date, he says, has been "brushing up on statistics" and learning how to input data in the proper form.
So far, his company is subsidizing his studies.
"If they stopped or if I leave this company, it would be a hardship, so I might have to stop for a while," he says. "I’ll have to play it by ear."
And, so far, his two grown daughters have been supportive and his wife has been "pretty understanding."
He tries to study during the week, he says, which of course comes at a price: Russell finds he has had to decline invitations to socialize with friends.
As a teenager who loathed high school, Sue Granata surprised herself two years ago when she decided to go back to school.
"I was in a job I felt couldn’t go any further, was tired of sitting at a computer all day and was contemplating retiring or staying home," says Granata, 56, who had spent 17 years as a secretary in the Yale School of Medicine’s pharmacology department.
While casting about for inspiration, she heard about a program for addiction counselors at Gateway Community College and was sufficiently motivated to check it out.
"I called the director of the program, who said, ‘I’ll help you any I can,’" Granata recalls.
After conferring with her daughter, who was about to marry and leave home, Granata quit her Yale med school job and enrolled in the drug and alcohol rehabilitation counselor program. "My boss was sorry to see me go, but also proud of me," she says.
"When I started I was so far behind," Granata explains. "I had to take a number of courses to get ready for the program." Granata says she paid about $2,000 per year for tuition. A divorced mother who put her two children through college at other area schools, she says it was cheap by comparison.
"The first day I was terrified, and walked into an English class, where the teacher, who recognized my attentiveness and the fact I really wanted to learn, asked everyone to tell why they were there.
"I said, ‘I’m older than dirt but I’m going to give this a try.’ And after that my classmates, who were maybe two years out of high school, were so helpful to me. Perhaps that’s why I carried on."
As part of her studies, Granata took Spanish, "to make me more marketable," and even made it through a dreaded math class with a B-plus.
In May Granata graduated with an associate’s degree, with honors, and received an academic award as well. At graduation she carried a sign onstage to get her diploma which read: "I’m old. I did it and you can too!"
Now Granata is beginning to look for work in the addiction field, a task she acknowledges may not be easy in light of recent state and federal budget cuts. But she’s determined to find a job — even if she starts as a volunteer.
"This is not a field where you look for megabucks or pats on the back," she says. "You do it because you want to do it."
|
Go FirstGo PreviousGo
NextGo LastGo
to Index
|
|
