With Baby Boomers at the crosswords of work and retirement, the nation's community colleges hoped they might attract them to classes to help in the transition from one career to another, or one interest to another.
To a certain extent, that has been true, according to a report from the American Association of Community Colleges Plus 50 Initiative.
The number of Boomers taking courses specifically designed as part of the Plus 50 Initiative has grown.
But the overall number of Boomers who are attending community colleges declined.
The Plus 50 Initiative is a three-year program to identify a pilot group of two-year institutions that will create or expand campus programs to engage the 50 and older population in learning; training/re-training programs; and/or volunteer, civic, service activities. The initiative is funded by a grant to AACC from The Atlantic Philanthropies. AACC provided sub-grants to member colleges selected through a competitive grant process.
An annual report says the Plus 50 Program increased by approximately 2,500 individuals. It said the increase can be traced at least partially to the fact that there are more courses associated with Plus 50 programming. Survey data from students participating in Plus 50 programs also shows that program outreach is drawing plus 50 students to the college.
Overall, however, in terms of older students enrolling in community college courses (not associated with the 50 Plus program) enrollment is down by almost 7,000.
"While the disappearance of retirement savings might draw some students to campus for workforce training courses, it can have the opposite effect for courses that people take for enrichment and personal interest. It may be that many plus 50 students no longer had the time or disposable income to enroll in such courses because they had to cut back on non?essential expenses or had to return to the workplace." said the Initiative report.
"It is the hope that in future years of the initiative, the ability of Plus 50 programming to draw students to campus will positively affect enrollment numbers overall."
One trend the Initiative is seeing is a growing number of Baby Boomer women who are using the resources.
A statement from the Initiative cited Department of Labor data that show, among women ages 50-54, approximately 8 percent were unemployed in February 2010. While that figure is slightly lower than the overall unemployment rate at 9.7 percent, "it remains of significant concern, as these workers represent some of the most highly experienced and they have the least amount of time to re-coup retirement savings lost, compared with younger workers," said the Initiative statement.
"Unfortunately, what many of the unemployed find is that their skills may not transfer easily to new careers and fields. As a result, baby boomer women are increasingly turning to community colleges to train for new careers."
Here are the participating colleges:
Demonstration Colleges receiving grants are:
- Clover Park Technical College (Lakewood, Wash.)
- Joliet Junior College (Joliet, Ill.)
- Luzerne County Community College (Nanticoke, Pa.)
- Richland College, part of the Dallas County Community College District (Texas)
- Santa Fe College (Gainesville, Fla.)
- St. Louis Community College (St. Louis, Mo.)
- Wake Technical Community College (Raleigh, N.C.)
- Western Dakota Technical Institute (Rapid City, S.D.)
Mentor colleges receiving grants are:
- Cape Cod Community College (West Barnstable, Mass.)
- Central Florida Community College (Ocala, Fla.)
- Century College (White Bear Lake, Minn.)
- Clark College (Vancouver, Wash.)
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Community Colleges of Spokane (Wash.)
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