Community education tips for lifelong learners

Noncredit community continuing education for adults is designed to provide enrichment activities for individuals who are lifelong learners. These courses and classes are especially organized in a manner to promote, improve, and expand community resources. The idea behind this concept is to encourage greater cooperation among agencies and institutions within the community.

Advantages of Community Education

In most cases, community education programs rely on area experts to provide continuing education for residents. This is accomplished using a twofold approach for these noncredit courses, which is to:

Integrate community experts in teaching adults who want to learn new information on a wide range of topics.
Build a collaborative network of professionals and residents who come together to become involved in community issues.

Community Education Centers

Community education courses and classes are typically held in local government facilities; however they are also taught in local high schools and community colleges. The advantage of these facilities is that they are designed for adults and education, which allows easy presentation of courses and classes.

The advantage of community education courses is they are tailored to meet the needs and desires of local residents. Community education leaders take polls, listen to residents’ requests, and review course feedback forms to decide what courses to offer. The best way for any resident to have a noncredit course offered they are interested in taking, is to contact the local coordinator or even better enroll in a course or two.

Course booklets are mailed to local residents typically three times a year – spring, summer, and fall listing courses being offered. If you have not received a copy, a call or visit to local government offices is typically all that is needed to obtain a copy. Enrollment forms are normally included course booklets.

NonCredit Continuing Education Course Topics

Community education courses are typically offered as noncredit courses and charge a nominal fee to cover costs. Courses offered are normally offered for those in high demand by local area residents, such as:

Food Handler Certificates
Supervision and Management
Making Home Movies with Camcorders
Taking Pictures with Digital Cameras Strategies and Techniques
Hands-on Makeup
Basic Computer Skills
Use and Safety of the Internet
Healthy Practices, such as: Fitness, Aerobics, and Meditation
Consumer Protection and Information on a wide range of topics, such as: Understanding Effects of Medications, Health Insurance, Credit Card Scams, Identity Theft Protection, Medicaid Prescription Options, and more
Genealogy Search Strategies
Retirement Plans, such as: ERAs, 401Ks, Social Security, and more
Nutritional Options, such as: Dietetic Meals, Menu Planning, and more
How to Topics, such as: Pottery, Scrap Booking, Ballroom Dancing, Write Fiction Stories, Live on a Budget, and many more
Travel to Foreign Countries
Tours of Local and Regional Attractions

This is just a partial list of noncredit courses which are offered through community education programs. Communities have their favorites and are always looking for new topics to offer.

Community education programs are a great way to get involved, learn something new, and develop a better understanding of difficult topics. Also, everyone has become an expert at something during his life. These programs provide an opportunity to share these skills with others who want to learn about what you know. The opportunities are unlimited in becoming involved in community education programs.

Why is Continuing Education Important

Ask any person engaged or thinking about engaging in continuing education why they are continuing their education and you will get a variety of answers. However, there are common threads in all their answers. These threads are centered on internal and external forces which stimulate the need to continually seek advanced education.

These internal and external forces are defined by the way adults learn and their career field. All adults learn differently and it is important to know one’s learning style, which can be determined by taking this two minute test. Outside forces which drive adults to continue their education are based on the evolution of the industry in which they work and need for material things.

Internal Continuing Education Forces

These internal forces can be broken into four categories of why adults undertake any educational endeavor. These four categories are not all encompassing or limiting. The four categories are heavily influenced by several factors which include: age, sex, level of education, personality, learning style, motivation, and more.

If you fit in either of the following three categories, your nature and educational actions are characterized by learning in formal educational settings.

Goal Oriented

This type learner has specific goals in mind, which highly focus all continuing education activities. Goals may include: high school diploma, bachelor degree, master’s degree, specialized certification or recertification, etc. The achievement of educational goals provides a since of achievement and self-satisfaction. Enrolls in either traditional classroom instruction or distance learning courses, whichever helps the person achieve their personal goal.

Activity Oriented

This type of learner engages in learning activities for the sake of just learning. These learners enjoy social contact along with learning new things. This learner typically enrolls in traditional classroom instruction course, because the person needs to interact with others. Often going back to school and fitting in is a concern for activity oriented learners.

Learning Oriented

This type of learner is typically called a lifelong learner. Lifelong learners enjoy learning just for the sake of learning. They read a lot, use the community library, access the Internet, visit museums, visit historical sites, and enroll in community learning courses. Their interests are eclectic, as they are willing to learn about pretty much anything. They enroll in either traditional classroom instruction or distance learning courses, whichever helps them achieve their goals.

If you fall into this fourth category of learning, your nature and educational actions are characterized by learning in informal educational settings.

Self-Direction Oriented

This type of learner engages learning activities, which is a self-guided, self-reliant, autonomous, and independent. This person engages in learning activities in which they have total domain or control. Typically enrolls in distance learning education, because they have control over their learning progress.

External Continuing Education Forces

There are two major forces which drive most people into continuing education programs, these are:

Occupational Obsolescence

Occupational developments, techniques, technologies, and knowledge evolve to the point that every 10 -15 years, a person is only half competent to do his job. Consequently, an adult must enroll in continuing education programs, either through distance learning or traditional classroom learning, to maintain or regain competence.

Changing Life Styles

Concerns for saving or improving their environment drive people to keep up with the Joneses. They try to live a full and rich life which is maximized by success in obtaining material things. These personal needs typically cause people to seek additional education to make them eligible for promotions or better paying jobs to improvement their environmental life style.

Making Connections

It certain that these internal and external forces overlap to meet adults’ continuing education needs. It is also possible that many adults move in and out of these internal and external forces based on their stage of life. Six reasons adults go back to school provides additional explanations of the forces which drive people.