News & Updates
There are currently 90 million adults in the U.S. who are at a disadvantage in the workforce due to the lack of a postsecondary credential, unable to reap the social and economic benefits that come with a degree or certificate from an institution of higher education. What’s more, approximately 45% of that population actually started down their higher education path but, for a myriad of reasons, stopped out of their program prior to completion.
Most often, the reasons behind those stop-outs are rooted in the fact that colleges were designed for the “traditional” student, aged 18–22 and attending full time — not for adults with busy lives who struggle to balance competing priorities, such as work and childrearing, with their schooling.
Fortunately, many colleges — particularly community colleges, which serve 70–80% of enrolled adult learners — are increasingly taking a more proactive approach to easing the pathway to higher education for mature students, focusing attention and resources on how to make college feasible for them and how to best support them in accomplishing their academic and career goals.
Leveraging its knowledge about the unique needs of adult learners and how community colleges can best serve them, Achieving the Dream has launched a new initiative to guide institutions in developing a strategic enrollment management (SEM) plan focused on underserved adult populations in their communities.
From Opening Doors to Ushering In: Strategic Enrollment Management for Adult Learners, funded by Ascendium Education Group, is an 18-month project that is engaging five colleges in examining institutional, community, and workforce data to identify priority adult populations and their goals and challenges in accessing higher education. ATD experts will work with the colleges to develop a set of effective strategies derived from this data and enriched by current national and statewide research and practices in supporting adult learners. By the end of the initiative, each participating college will possess a comprehensive SEM plan customized to fit its specific community needs, guided by the most up-to-date expert advice.
The five colleges participating in the initiative were chosen from a highly competitive applicant pool. According to Julia Lawton, ATD’s director of program administration, the selected colleges are not the only ones who will benefit from the project.
“In keeping with its tradition of knowledge dissemination, ATD will share insights gained from the project’s work and tools with the Network and broader community to equip other colleges to develop their own adult learner focused SEM plan,” she shared.
Participating Colleges
- Everett Community College (Washington)
- Forsyth Technical Community College (North Carolina)
- North Central State College (Ohio)
- Grayson College (Texas)
- Tallahassee State College (Florida)
Lawton indicates that these tools will encompass design and implementation guidance for leading approaches to expanding postsecondary access for adult learners. They will include examples of customized SEM plans for various adult populations, along with tools utilized in collaboration with colleges to steer the planning process.
The project launched in late July with a virtual orientation and peer discussion for participating institutions. This month, the colleges will meet their SEM coaches, establish team expectations and goals, and initiate data collection to guide their planning process.
Learn more about the SEM initiative.
Visit ATD’s Strategy Hub to explore adult learner strategies.