It is never too late to go back to school and continue education. For adults who by passed their education in their early years, today’s educational opportunities provide many benefits and advantages. For adults who do go back to school, over 80% graduate with a degree compared to less than 50% of those who attend college right after high school (U.S. Department of Labor).
Many adults will not go back to school because of myths surrounding continuing education, distance learning concerns, and unaware of the benefits of continuing education. Elimination of concerns and awareness of benefits are keys to success for adults continuing their education.
Benefits of Continuing Education for Adults
Adults go back to school for a variety of reasons. These reasons are centered on personal achievements or a new found inner drive to succeed. The main reasons adults continue their education include:
- Taking advanced courses in their career field to improve chances for promotion and salary increases.
- Becoming more marketable in their career field or a new career field they are entering.
- Improving education level to improve their lives and to inspire their children to improve their education.
- Simply take courses of interest or complete a program they have developed a deep rooted passion about for a specific subject area.
As adults progress through their chosen career, they determine several things. Typically these are the limitations they have because of their level of education. Some adults learn a chosen career field is not for them, so they need to reeducate themselves to enter a new career field.
The benefits distance learning provides adults include the:
- Flexibility to work full time and enroll in a course or program which fits their work schedule.
- Ability to enroll in a course or program offered by any school in the country.
- Fact that distance learning courses provide the same thoroughness of learning experiences as traditional classroom education.
- Ability to learn from the most current information available, because of the dynamic nature of the Internet in providing state of the art learning experiences.
- Ability to learn at one’s own pace, which is not possible in traditional classroom education.
Myths about the Benefits of Adult Education
As adults advance in years and career, they typically hear many myths regarding continuing education. These myths generally provide a negative view about continuing education. However these are just myths and here are a few benefits (The College Board):
- Continuing education is only for smart people – false, because adults have built a foundation of knowledge of work and life experiences they can draw upon.
- Advanced education is only for the young – false, because the average college student’s age is in the 30s. Some college students are even in their 70s and 80s.
- The cost of the education is not worth the expense – false, because an adult with a college degree will earn about one million dollars more in their life time than a high school graduate. An adult with graduate degree will earn about two million dollars more in their life time than a high school graduate.
- Adults make too much for aid – false, aid is available for most people and in fact nearly half of all adults earning more than $80,000 a year qualify for some aid.
David R. Wetzel - Dr. David Wetzel's experience includes more than 25 years in continuing, adult, and teacher education.
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