Owens Community College was among 10 academic institutions across the country selected to participate in the national Plus 50 Encore Completion Program designed to train baby boomers for new jobs over the next three years.
The program, offered by the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) in cooperation with its members, will eventually include 100 colleges offering special training programs for students age 50 and older. Owens was the only institution in Ohio selected for a grant to fund its participation in the preliminary phase of the program.
“Owens is honored to be chosen as one of the few community colleges in the country to participate in the Plus 50 Encore Completion Program,” said Michael Bankey, vice president of Workforce and Community Services at Owens.
“We are expecting the official paperwork for the grant soon, but we already formed an advisory committee and are developing a timeline for the program,” he said.
Bankey said Owens will begin formal planning for the program in September and expects to begin offering it to age 50-plus students next spring.
“Education opens doors to endless career possibilities. The college looks forward to working with the American Association of Community Colleges and local organizations in developing an education program that meets the needs of baby boomers throughout the Northwest Ohio region,” Bankey said.
Baby boomers have increasingly turned to community colleges for training for new careers. Since 2007, adults age 50 and older have struggled in a job market with record unemployment. Many find they must reinvent their careers and update their skills if they are going to get hired, according to the AACC.
Careers in education, health care and social services appeal to baby boomers, who often show interest in civic engagement.
Mary Sue Vickers, director for the Plus 50 Initiative at AACC, said the program expects to add an additional 89 colleges in 2012 and early 2013 that will help reach 10,000 baby boomer students by 2015.
“Baby boomers are not like traditional college students. We find that colleges need to adapt how they operate to support their job training needs and educational success,” Vickers stated in a press release about the program.
An independent evaluation of the Plus 50 Initiative found 89 percent of students agreed that college workforce training helped them acquire new job skills and 72 percent attributed finding a job to such training, according to the AACC.
Since 2008, the Plus 50 Initiative has focused its efforts on training programs to get unemployed older adults back on the job. The AACC expects the 100 colleges will use the Plus 50 Encore Completion Program to build on the success of the initiative, Vickers said.
In addition to grant funds, the participating colleges will have access to thousands of dollars in marketing materials such as tool kits and training webinars designed to make reaching out to age 50-plus students much easier.
Bankey said Owens will benefit from the advice of other community colleges that have implemented programs for older students and understand their unique needs.
The Plus 50 Encore Completion Program is funded with a $3.2 million grant to the AACC provided by Deerbrook Charitable Trust. The AACC is a national organization representing nearly 1,200 community, junior, and technical colleges in the U.S.
The other institutions chosen for the first phase include Arapahoe Community College in Colorado, Black River Technical College in Arkansas, Broome Community College in New York, Lansing Community College in Michigan, Pitt Community College in North Carolina, San Jacinto Community College in Texas, Southside Virginia Community College, West Virginia University, John Wood Community College and Waubonsee Community College in Illinois.
More information about the program at Owens will be available at a later date or interested seniors can visit http://plus50.aacc.nche.edu.
