Academia charts a new course: programs emerge, adjust to capture growing market of working professionals.

• Author: Siebrase, Jamie
• Position: EDUCATION

LIFELONG LEARNING is no longer just an exercise for the intellectually curious. Increasingly, it's a matter of career survival, or at least advancement.

"In the good old days, you graduated college, went to work for a company and could expect a 45-year career," says University of Phoenix's Kent Blumberg, Colorado campus director of academic affairs.

Today, employees are rewarded for capabilities, not credentials, writes George Leef, research director at the John W. Pope Center for Higher Education Policy. "Especially in this skills-based economy we work in," adds Galvanize gSchool CEO Jim Deters. "Learning is a continuum process where you can build a la carte skill sets."

Between 2001 and 2011, post-secondary enrollment increased 32 percent, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. During that period, the increase in the number of students over 25 (41 percent) was larger than the increase in the number of students under 25 (35 percent), and the number of part-time students rose 23 percent.

As the demand for education increases and more working professionals seek continuous development, local schools have adapted accordingly. The result is a lot of options. "With so many choices, the important thing for adult learners is identifying their goals," says Michael McGuire, Dean of University College at the University of Denver.

ACADEMIA ABSORBS ADULTS

At the University of Colorado Boulder's Division of Continuing Education, some students want to change careers, says Assistant Dean Armando Pares. "But there are even more folks who want to pick up skills," he says. Students garner skills to advance their careers, boost earnings and increase job security. "It's also about job satisfaction," DU's McGuire adds. "Because our students are, on average, 36 years old, they have more perspective on how careers fit into their lives."

The University of Phoenix's national career and education survey of more than 1,000 working adults corroborates this, having found nearly half of U.S. employees gain equal or greater feelings of self-worth from their jobs as they do from their personal lives. And 54 percent of working adults think pursuing additional education will amplify self-worth. "Our identity is tied up in our jobs, and education plays a part in that more than it ever used to," Blumberg says.

What about employers' wants and needs? Mark Reilly, senior vice president of JE Dunn Construction, said he values hard skills...