Baby boomers go back to college
Richland College is at the forefront in programs that retrain older workers and retirees for new careers
11:12 PM CST on Wednesday, January 2, 2008
By BOB MOOS / The Dallas Morning News
bmoos@dallasnews.com
Downsized and depressed, Leigh Hoes was approaching 50 and wondering what to do with the rest of her work life.
Photos by RANDY ELI GROTHE/DMN
Baby boomer Leigh Hoes, 51, now dispenses medicine at Parkland Memorial Hospital after retraining to become a pharmacy technician in a Richland College program. She plans to work into her 60s or 70s. Then one day, as she leafed through a course catalog that had arrived in the mail from Richland College in Dallas, the idea came to her.
Why not work in a pharmacy, dispensing prescriptions?
After all, she thought, a health care career had always appealed to her, the job was fairly recession-proof, and she could train for it in just one year.
Like many other baby boomers, the food technology specialist turned to a community college for help in changing careers. She enrolled in one of Richland's health professions certificate programs.
Today, at 51, Ms. Hoes is a pharmacy technician at Parkland Memorial Hospital, filling prescriptions and waiting on customers.
"I've found my niche," she said. "I see myself working in health care into my 60s and maybe 70s."
Four in five boomers have told pollsters they intend to work past their traditional retirement age, and many want to find new jobs with a higher social purpose and more flexible hours.
Labor analysts, meanwhile, predict the U.S. economy will face shortages of 6 million workers by 2012 and 35 million workers by 2030. The hardest-hit fields will be education, health care and public service.
"The two trends present a historic opportunity for community colleges," said Judy Goggin, a vice president for Civic Ventures, a think tank that's helping people reinvent themselves in the second half of life.
Community colleges have typically been nimble at adapting their curriculum to new workforce demands, she said.
"The time's right for developing programs for boomers trying to launch the next phase of their working lives and for employers faced with a brain drain over the next couple of decades," Ms. Goggin said.
One community college that educators say is emerging as a national model for catering to boomer students is Richland, which is part of the Dallas County Community College District.
"Richland was among the first to reach out to retirees and is now in the vanguard of schools helping students in midlife," said Norma Kent, an executive with the American Association of Community Colleges.
The college's Emeritus program for retirees began in 1989 with 150 seniors and has since grown to more than 4,000 enrollments in daytime classes that teach everything from computer skills to genealogy.
Now the school will launch its Boomer Reboot program in January, with evening classes that will teach boomers how to look for a job, plan for retirement, care for aging parents and manage their own stress.
The new classes are in addition to Richland's current health professions and teacher certification programs, which each year attract dozens of midlife students wanting to switch careers.
"We realize that boomers aren't the same as their parents, so we've built a curriculum around their biggest concerns," said Mitzi Werther, director of the college's Emeritus and Boomer Reboot programs.
Richland will offer 17 courses specifically for boomers in this first year.
Career counselor Jill Waterbury, for example, will tell boomers returning to the job market how to write a résumé that emphasizes their experience rather than age and how they should field interview questions.
"On résumés, I recommend going back only 15 years," she said. "That's not a deception – it's a way to get you in the door."
Retirement planning
The new retirement-planning course has been tailor-made for boomers who say they haven't saved enough, Ms. Werther said. Almost half of that generation worry they will outlive their money.
Certified financial planner Dave Bell will lead students through a do-it-yourself exercise designed to analyze their personal finances and answer whether they'll be able to enjoy retirement.
"At the end of the six sessions, you'll know enough to do your own financial planning," he said.
Geriatric care manager Kay Paggi will coach boomers on how to juggle their jobs with their caregiving. One in six workers cares for an older relative. Stressed out, one in five caregivers quits working or looks for a less-demanding job.
"Parents often live out of state, so the caregiving may turn out to be long distance," she said. "We'll sort through the logistics."
Rebooting
The Boomer Reboot courses start Jan. 22 and cost from $12 to $40. The yearlong certification programs run about $3,000.
About 1,400 of Richland's 15,000 students are between 40 and 60, and college officials say they hope that number will increase as the school offers more boomer-oriented courses and steps up its marketing.
The median age for a community college student is now 28.
Only about 30 community colleges nationwide have programs aimed at students 50 and older, and most are for retirees rather than boomers, said Ms. Kent from the American Association of Community Colleges.
The association recently received a $3.2 million grant from the Atlantic Philanthropies to spur the development of more boomer programs at 15 yet-to-be-named colleges across the country.
The group's boomer initiative dovetails a similar partnership between Civic Ventures and the MetLife Foundation to prepare midlife students for second careers in education, health care and social services.
Collin College in Allen was among 10 schools nationwide to get $25,000 grants from the partnership last summer.
The community college is using the money to train boomers to become math teachers within a year. Many left engineering or technology careers, or were laid off, and now want to give back to their community.
"Our graduates will have no difficulty finding jobs, because schools value their life experience," said Sabrina Belt, who directs the college's Center for Teaching, Learning and Professional Development.
Ms. Goggin from Civic Ventures said boomers who enroll in community college programs expect a "clear path to employment" after graduation.
"They don't want to jump through a lot of hoops," she said.
Jan Parrish, Richland's associate dean for health professions, said the college's 10 health care certificate programs are especially popular because graduates usually end up with several job offers.
While Ms. Hoes became a pharmacy technician, other graduates go to work in medical offices, preparing patients for exams, scheduling appointments, drawing blood or processing insurance claims.
"They're jobs that won't be sent offshore," Ms. Parrish said. "For someone who's been downsized once or twice, that's comforting to know."
Beyond offering personal enrichment courses and career retraining programs, community colleges could play a big role in teaching boomers the skills to become useful community volunteers, Ms. Kent said.
"Not everyone will need to work. Many will look for opportunities to serve their communities," she said. "Community colleges are in a good position to match boomers with volunteer activities."
Richland honored
AARP recently singled out Richland for its Conversation Partners program as a model for volunteerism. Each year, 500 seniors in the Emeritus program volunteer to help foreign-born students improve their language skills.
"They just sit down and visit, but the casual conversation works wonders," Ms. Werther said.
Richland plans to extend the program to boomer volunteers this spring.
With more than 650,000 Dallas County residents between 40 and 60, college officials see an almost unlimited potential for their new programs.
"The moment for community colleges is now," Ms. Kent said. "They're the logical place to help boomers find new purpose in life."
