College and career: Returning adult students are career-focused - and they're increasing in number

If you're looking for a career change, local education officials say health care, education and technology are the way to go.

"A lot of people who are changing careers and going back to college are doing it not because they want to, but because they've been squeezed out of something else and are looking for something solid and stable," says Christy Mershon, assistant director of extended and continuing education at Southeast Missouri State University. "Health care has really not taken as big a hit. In this region, if you're looking for something that seems stable, that's a sure bet."

Mershon, who works with students seeking nondegree credits and work-force development, says enrollment is up in the university's CNA and health technology programs, where students are interested in jobs as pharmacists, dental technicians and medical billers and transcriptionists. Finance and business are also popular with adults, she says. While in the past Mershon saw many adults looking for a complete career change, perhaps even a new degree, more of today's nontraditional students are simply looking for stable, successful careers.

"I think people are more afraid now. If they're employed, it's a scary time to jump off bridge, though there are probably some folks doing that," says Mershon. "Most jobs lost in this region tend to be at a lower skill level, like factories. We don't see a lot of people at age 50 deciding they want bachelor's degree. ... Those people who lose their jobs really aren't interested in going back for four-year degree. They're going back to get a paycheck and pay the bills."

Upper-level workers who lose their jobs, however, might see it as a breaking point, or an opportunity to work on their education while the job market is weak.

Danielle Alspaugh, associate director of admissions at Southeast, works with adults returning to continue their education, whether it's a higher degree or a new degree altogether. Either way, Mershon, like Alspaugh, believes most are in search of stability.

"Most of the time they're coming back to school to look at something along the lines of the career they had and want to move up a degree and get promoted. Others want to do something completely different," she says. "Most are looking for something that will allow them to stay in this area because they have families to keep them in the Cape community."

According to Alspaugh, the number of adults seeking degrees at Southeast has more than doubled in recent years. To accommodate more adults, Southeast has adjusted its entry requirements for nontraditional students, such as by relying on placement exams instead of ACT or SAT scores.

"With the options we have available in higher ed, it makes it easier for adult students come back to school," says Alspaugh, citing nighttime and online courses. "Now it's a lot easier for adults to study when they want to study and go to school when they want to go to school. That degree is more attainable."

Mershon believes Southeast's partnerships, including that with Three Rivers Community College and Mineral Area College for a community college in Cape Girardeau, is a testament to the need for adult education opportunities.

"I think the primary driving force behind it is that population looking for education -- maybe not a four-year degree, but definitely an associate's degree," says Mershon. "I think that has spearheaded some of those decisions to reach out with different programs and fulfill different needs."

At Three Rivers, registrar Cindy Clark reports that nursing and education are the most popular areas of study with adult students.

"There is demand in the health industry," says Clark. "Medical lab technology, surgery technology and registered nursing programs are in high demand and they are well paying jobs, so a lot of students are looking there."

Three Rivers' paramedic program is being reinvented to offer a full paramedic program on campus, rather than relying on training from other facilities, says Clark, and she expects enrollment to rise in this area. Adults are also interested in public school education and computer and technology-related programs, she says.

And, like Southeast, Three Rivers has seen an increase in "contemporary students," or those who have already been to school and are coming back for additional courses or degrees.

"We are seeing an enormous amount of returning students coming back from the '80s and '90s," says Clark. "We're pulling out old files from that far back and retraining."

The college is adjusting to the increase by gearing its orientation programs toward adults with families and full- or part-time jobs.

"It's been awhile since they've been in school, so we concentrate more on placement and have specific areas covered during orientation of contemporary students, like how to ask for academic support and encouraging them to take advantage of special services offered at no charge to students," says Clark. "We work on how to balance a school schedule with life. Life as they know it changes when they come to school -- it's a change in the whole lifestyle, so we will work more with students in the future on learning to balance and fit these together."