A Growing Demand for Adult Learning?

This is not big news but another piece of evidence confirming the trend toward lifelong learning. A recent survey comissioned by Capella University reveals enormous demand for adult education. The Degrees of Opportunity report indicates that:

• Just over half the respondents indicated they would like to pursue additional education. This extrapolates to the equivalent of more than 70 million Americans age 25 to 60.
• Nine out of 10 aid that the benefits of higher education are equal to or greater than the time, money, and energy invested.

However,

• Only one-third of those who would like more education said that they would “probably pursue this.”
• The top two barriers to pursuing higher education were:

1. Finding the time for school amidst work, family, and other commitments.
2. Finding the money for school, including the need to provide for themselves and their family while attending school

A suvey of influences revealed that:

• only 4 percent of adults say their boss has the most influence on whether or not they go back to school;
• looking back, adults most often point to one or both of their parent as someone who substantially influenced whether they pursued higher education;
• for 51 percent of adults, their spouse or partner is currently the single greatest influence.

To me this snapshot reveals a need for flexibile and affordable learning options. It indicates either a lack of availability or a lack of awareness of these options. This desire to learn is not driven by employers but by personal and family factors. There are potential ripple effects that will drive future demand as adults influence spouses who in turn influence children.

All this confirms the value of lifelong online learning to meet this demand in an affordable and flexible way. It also underscores the importance of having k-12 students become proficient in learning with online tools because their lives will likely be -- for better or worse -- as busy as their parents.

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