Unique Challenges Facing Adult Students
Making the decision to return to college or begin a college degree program is a big one and one that is not made easily. You may have been considering returning to school for months or even years. If you have made the brave decision to further your education at Colorado Christian University, you are to be commended. You have ventured forth into one of the most challenging and exciting endeavors one can undertake--a college education. You may be a bit anxious, even fearful of what lies ahead. Feelings of fear and dread and insecurity are all very common in adults returning to school. Adult students face unique challenges not often faced by college students fresh out of high school.
One of the greatest challenges facing adult students is a disconnect between skills learned and skills needed to perform in the workplace. You will often hear stories about people in their thirties, forties, and fifties who are laid off or "let go" and are replaced by younger, more computer-savvy, social media-savvy workers. After working for the same company for many years, adults are being dismissed from their jobs because the skill set necessary to perform their jobs has changed in recent years. With the boom of social media and everything being Internet-related, those skills are absolute necessities in most work environments. The skill set you had five to ten years ago is no longer enough to manage the demands of your job. Going back to school is sometimes your only option to keep pace with the traffic on the technological highway.
According to an article posted on Fox Business in July about why so many adults are returning to school, "That disconnect is frustrating because you can either end up out of work, end up in a job that is not fulfilling, or you end up in a job that will not lead to further advancement. Many, many times it is because a degree is needed to advance or the skills you've got are no longer the skills the workplace needs." That's where CCU comes in. You can get the degree you feel you need (and want) to advance in your career and make yourself more marketable, in general.
Time and work commitments are other challenges adult students tend to face more so than students fresh out of high school. Many of CCU's adult students have full-time jobs, full-time family responsibilities, or part-time jobs. Adults returning to school must juggle the demands of their job, coursework, family responsibilities, and study time and be able to set and stick to somewhat rigid schedules. You must be self-disciplined to be able to balance a full-time job with school work, but thousands of students have been very successful at doing just that and have enjoyed huge success following the completion of their degree program, so you can, too!
Here are just some of the types of adult degree programs CCU offers:
Fear has probably kept many adults from finalizing the decision to return to school, but don't let fear overcome you. The CCU blog regularly focuses on topics related to challenges adult students face.