Dive Brief:
- The American Association of Community Colleges’ Plus 50 Completion Strategy, funded by Lumina Foundation, has been deemed a success.
- The four-year program provided grants to 17 community colleges for job training and career development programs for people over age 50, and it ended up with more than double its goal for participants and graduates, according to a new report.
- The final tallies were 20,514 participants and 8,877 students completing degree or certificate programs, compared to the program’s goals of 9,000 and 3,600, respectively. The success was attributed to the colleges' resourcefulness.
Dive Insight:
Colleges reported that 1,217 participants landed jobs, although employment figures are difficult to track down and were certainly undercounted. Plus, only 12 of the 17 colleges tracked down any job data. In the program's fourth year, 15% of the workforce courses were accelerated courses, allowing students to complete them more quickly, and 34% had flexible scheduling, including classes held at night or on weekends. That same year, 22% of the courses were taught by instructors with specialized training to teach to the unique learning styles of people over the age of 50.