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Job market, self-enrichment lure boomers back to school

RICK ADAMCZAK
Special to the Legal News

Published: February 21, 2013

The presence of older students in college classrooms has been growing in recent decades, and baby boomers are among those flocking to classrooms.

As older boomers slip into retirement many of them will take classes simply for self-enrichment, to learn something new, learn more about a subject they’re interested in or as a way to just keep their minds active.

The Ohio State University has a program called Program 60 through its Office of Extended Education through which people age 60 and older can take courses on a noncredit basis.

Columbus State Community College offers a similar program, called Good as Gold, in which people age 60 or older can enroll in a class without having to pay tuition.

They don’t earn any college credits upon completion of the coursework and must pay any accompanying class fees but they also get student discounts on campus activities.

But for many other baby boomers, especially the ones not yet old enough or financially capable to retire, they’re going back to school for the same reason they went in their younger days — to get a job.

The recession resulted in millions of lost jobs and many of those tossed to the unemployment lines were baby boomers who now have been forced to attend school for retraining and possibly new career paths.

Last summer, a new national program designed to train 10,000 baby boomers for new jobs in health care, education and social service was launched by the American Association of Community Colleges.

Called the Plus 50 Encore Completion Program, the program is funded with a $3.2 million grant from the Deerbrook Charitable Trust.

The program has started in 11 colleges, including Owens State Community College in Perrysburg, Ohio, with plans to eventually expand to 100 colleges.

“Baby boomers are not like traditional college students. We find that colleges need to adapt how they operate to support their job training needs and educational success,” said Mary Sue Vickers, director for the Plus 50 Initiative at American Association of Community Colleges.

An independent evaluation of the Plus 50 Initiative found that 89 percent of students agreed that college workforce training helped them acquire new job skills and 72 percent attributed landing a job to such training.

The Plus 50 Encore Completion program supports American Association of Community Colleges’ work to increase the number of students who finish degrees, certificates and other credentials.

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