CPTC staff offer strategies to reach baby boomers
Posted on April 28, 2010Today’s community colleges face an influx of baby boomers seeking job training amid the aftershocks of the economic recession, but community college leaders don’t have to scramble to understand how to help this non-traditional student population. They can get help from community colleges already working with baby boomers, like Clover Park Technical College. Staff from Clover Park were part of a presentation at the 90th annual convention of the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) last week called, "Plus 50 Initiative: What Have We Learned so Far?"
Brandon Rogers of Clover Park presented with Mary Sue Vickers, director of the Plus 50 Initiative at AACC in Washington, DC. The education professionals discussed standards of excellence or success factors that can serve as a foundation for programs that successfully serve baby boomers.
Rogers and Vickers advised colleges to: (1) tailor programs to meet the needs, interests and objectives of plus 50 students, (2) provide faculty and staff with professional development to help them teach courses and provide services effectively for plus 50 students, (3) market courses without the “senior” label, (4) publicize success stories of plus 50 students (5) set up an advisory committee that includes community partners and aging experts and (6)build an internal campus constituency to ensure program sustainability.
“Community colleges are on the forefront of efforts to help displaced workers in today’s stressed economy and they are actively seeking advice on how to reach baby boomers and meet this student population’s needs,” said Mary Sue Vickers, director of the Plus 50 Initiative at AACC.
She noted that plus 50 adults often have different needs from traditionally-aged college students. It may be difficult to locate transcripts from 35 years ago or navigate a registration system designed for 19-year-olds that grew up living and breathing the Internet age. Community colleges can take strategic and cost-effective steps to help baby boomers going back to school after a job layoff and decades away from campus.
She added that the Plus 50 Initiative program at Clover Park is particularly innovative and has worked hard to get out-of-work baby boomers re-trained for new careers, esp. in green jobs. Clover Park joined with other two Washington community colleges this year to offer a conference to help more than 22 community colleges in Washington and Oregon better support programs for plus 50 adults.
The presentation by Rogers and Vickers was one of three presentations offered at the AACC convention in Seattle, Wash. by colleges participating in the Plus 50 Initiative. Two colleges in north central Florida, Santa Fe College in Gainesville, Fla. and Central Florida Community College in Ocala, Fla., also presented information at the convention about their work with plus 50 students.
The Plus 50 Initiative is a three-year initiative sponsored by the AACC with a $3.2 million dollar grant from The Atlantic Philanthropies, offering tools to help colleges meet the needs of students age 50 and up. More information and resources to help community colleges implement plus 50 programming is available at http://plus50.aacc.nche.edu/
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