Practical Tips
Articles: How to Start a Plus 50 Program on Your Campus • Being a Plus 50-Friendly Community College • Plus 50 Colleges' Great Program and Service Ideas
How to Start a Plus 50 Program on Your Campus
12 Tips for Community Colleges
To successfully start a Plus 50 program for your community college, you must assess community needs and design a program, identify resources and assets in the community to support the program, and then implement the plan that puts the program into place. These twelve tips can help your community college design a Plus 50 program that helps your community. Let's get started!
- Involve your college president and senior administrators: Make sure top college administration is involved in the program from its inception. You need the attention and enthusiasm of your college's key players. Create visibility and support for your program by meeting with your college president, public information officer, trustees, deans, and department heads. Share your plans with them, and listen to their input. Institutional support is crucial for the program's implementation and sustainability. To secure continuous support and commitment, keep the president and senior administrators informed about the program's progress.
- Determine your audience: Knowing your audience will help focus outreach and maximize resources. Plus 50 adults are not a homogeneous group. They span more than three decades. Their interests range far beyond retirement planning and health concerns. While some plus 50 students enjoy enrichment coursework, many are highly focused on acquiring skills that will get them back on the job or improve their career development. Others want to volunteer and be actively engaged in shaping their communities for their better.
- Conduct a needs assessment: Needs assessment is the first step in developing a successful program. Look at census data, demographics, labor force participation, fastest growing occupation statistics, local employment projections, data from the State Department of Professional Regulation, etc. Use other available techniques: direct observation, questionnaires, surveys, consultation with persons in key positions, interviews, and focus groups. Perform an environmental scan of plus 50 programs and services available at other community colleges in your area. Conduct community mapping to assess unmet needs and resources available locally. Identify groups of current plus 50 learners on campus and get them involved in your plans. Don't forget to engage their social networks! Some of these people will likely step up and assist with further needs assessment for your programs.
- Assess your resources: Determine the cost of offering plus 50 programs and services for your community college. Consider staff time, marketing and public relations efforts. Will you depend on paid staff or volunteers, or both? Can you secure classrooms and labs? How will you publicize the program? How much time will be involved in reaching out to your audience? The answers to these questions will help you develop programs and services that are achievable within your budget.
- Know your community: Each community has different training and service needs. Talk to community leaders to get a grasp of issues, priorities and possibilities. Meet with members of the Chamber of Commerce, the Rotary Club, the Lions Club and other influential organizations to set goals and plan programs that have their support. AARP and SCORE chapters may be especially helpful for you, as well as the Area Agency on Aging or other groups that reach out to plus 50 adults.
- Convene a planning or advisory board: Include within the group: campus administration and faculty, community-based organizations and businesses. Encourage the active involvement of representatives from academic divisions, admissions, registration, counseling and advising, continuing education, workforce development, communications and external Relations, and financial aid. Establish how often the group will meet and how they'll communicate. Listen to stakeholders and solicit their input.
- Form community partnerships: Look around your community to discover which organizations have similar goals. For example, you could partner with the parks and recreation department, workforce development agency, the local museum, or a public library. When you work with other organizations, you gain their respect and support in solving mutual community problems. You also tap into their valuable networks and contacts.
- Set program goals and objectives: Design strategies to monitor program progress. Whether setting up a new program or expanding an existing one to a new audience, formulate measurable outcomes. Be both specific and realistic when stating your goals. By linking your program goals and objectives to your college mission, you will be able to generate campus support. Develop long-term goals, as well as clearly defined first-year goals.
- Secure funding: Look for funding within your college. Turn to private foundations, local corporations, business and industry councils, state departments of education, and federal agencies. Look for other forms of support, too, including employer-paid tuition and financial arrangements that will underwrite part or all of the cost of tuition or course fees for students.
- Develop an evaluation plan: As you design your program, you must also design your evaluation strategy. Take the pulse of your program as you develop it, by including assessment measures along the way. Evaluation will enable you identify strengths and weaknesses in your program as it grows, and help you make course corrections along the way as you build your program. It will also help you measure your overall success and establish a basis for additional funding.
- Create an infrastructure for your program: Define the roles and responsibilities for staff and volunteers. Adequate staffing is essential. Recruit and train faculty members to work with plus 50 learners. Conduct professional development training for faculty and staff.
- Participate in training and networking opportunities: Workshops and conferences by national and regional organizations that advocate and support plus 50 students offer opportunities for learning how to reach a variety of audiences. You also need to be familiar with how older adults learn, and what materials and approaches are appropriate for plus 50 learners. Establish professional relationships with other community colleges in your area who work with plus 50 learners, and share strategies and tips with them.
Being a Plus 50-Friendly Community College:
The Top Ten Things You Can Do
- Conduct a needs assessment of the local plus 50 population
- Tailor admission requirements and financial aid programs to plus 50 adults
- Provide a dedicated, point-of-contact faculty member for plus 50 students
- Avoid using words like "senior", "old", and "elder"
- Prepare counselors to deal with plus 50 student needs
- Offer short-term courses in condensed blocks of time
- Coach faculty about teaching plus 50 learners; adapt classrooms to adult learning styles
- Develop a targeted marketing plan, including specialized publications and websites.
- Partner with organizations that serve and reach out to plus 50 adults
- Cultivate support from the CEO and across academic divisions
Source: Plus 50 Students: Tapping Into a Growing Market
American Association of Community Colleges, March, 2009
Plus 50 Colleges' Great Program and Service Ideas
- Assessing Plus 50 Needs to Reduce Barriers to Access
St. Louis Community College assessed the needs and interests of students age 45 and older by mailing surveys to current and former students asking about preference for class times, areas of interest, and perceived obstacles to attending classes. Survey results helped inform planning for plus 50 programs and services that directly address the needs of adult learners. - Reaching Out to Local Employers and Workers
The Community Colleges of Spokane help local businesses and plus 50 adults through a series of non-credit classes addressing generational issues in the workplace. Designed to help employers and workers, the one-day courses address communication issues, languages of the generations, conflict resolution, and teambuilding across generations. - An Intergenerational Approach to Learning Computer Skills
Central Florida Community College has an innovative intergenerational Keyboarding and Basic Computer Operations class designed for plus 50 adults who have little or no experience using a computer. The course is delivered by high school students who are recruited and trained to teach plus 50 learners how computers work, how they are used, and the difference between hardware and software. - Overcoming the Fear of Computers
Plus 50 learners can overcome their fear of computers by enrolling in the Computers for the Terrified course offered at Luzerne Community College. The course gives plus 50 learners background on computing concepts as well as hands-on experience with basic computer skills, Windows programs, and file management. Plus 50 learners can also enroll in the follow-up course, Beyond Computers for the Terrified. - Plus 50 Information Night
Each month, St. Louis Community College holds an Adult Learner Information Night and Open House for plus 50 students. The presentation covers plus 50 programming, admissions, enrollment procedures, and adult learner concerns. - Plus 50 Advising
Joliet Junior College has two part-time career specialists and one academic advisor trained to provide student services tailored to plus 50 students at its Plus 50 Workforce Center. - Plus 50 "Smart Rooms"
Clark College provides for the learning needs and physical comfort of plus 50 learners by holding plus 50 courses in "smart rooms" equipped with the latest in high-tech equipment, including wireless microphones. - Plus 50 Classroom Technology
The Community Colleges of Spokane are modifying plus 50 classrooms with assistive technology to accommodate vision and hearing impairment. The computer lab is piloting the use of dual monitors so that instructional materials can be enlarged on the screen. In addition, the option to repeat online instruction as many times as necessary has helped some students with hearing or comprehension issues. - Plus 50 Shuttles
The Community Colleges of Spokane help meet plus 50 transportation needs by providing rides to campus from a central pick-up point. - Financial Aid Workshops For Plus 50 Learners
Financial aid workshops specifically for plus 50 students are being delivered at Clover Park Technical College. Having been out of school for some time, plus 50 learners are often unaware of the financial assistance available to them.
Source: Educating Plus 50 Learners: Opportunities for Community Colleges — March 2009: State of Community College Plus 50 Programs Nationwide
American Association of Community Colleges, March, 2009