The
Need for Adult Continuing Education
Times are different these days. Back even two decades ago,
once you had a good job you were in that job for life. Go back
further and you could even say that once your father had a good
job, you were pretty much assured of being able to follow in
his footsteps. These legacy jobs were especially prominent in
the automotive industry, where GM and Ford had what was almost
an institutional policy of hiring the sons (and sometimes,
daughters) of their employees. President Obama even highlighted
this in his campaign, and specifically how people who thought
their futures were secure have had to change their outlook.
This is why adult continuing
education has become so important. Not only have some of
America's biggest companies gone belly-up (hello, Chrysler!),
but the companies that still actually do business in the US are
looking for highly skilled, specialized workers that a good old
high school diploma - and in some cases, even a college degree
- just can't prepare you for.
Colleges have taken advantage of this surge in
twenty-and-thirty-somethings returning to school by opening
their doors to night classes, summer programs, weekend classes,
et cetera. New York University, for example, offers
adult continuing education classes in
everything from computer networking to accounting to electrical
engineering. All of these jobs are in high demand, and a degree
in one of those fields (which in some cases must be followed up
with a licence to practice) can provide the type of job
security that most people are desperate for in these uncertain
financial times.
While finding a new field or a better job is one of the
primary reasons adult continuing
education has boomed recently, there are other reasons as
well:
- The rapid advance of technology has made people who
were once secure in their high-tech jobs suddenly wary of
being overtaken by the times.
- Folks who graduated from college in the '90s with
degrees in computer engineering or networking don't have
obsolete degrees, but the information from their classes at
that time are damn near obsolete.
- Computer networks have changed drastically over the
last ten years, with new codes and languages and - in the
case of Linux - entirely new operating systems cropping up
seemingly every day. These are people who, like doctors or
lawyers, need to keep their knowledge of their field of
work current. As such, many many folks are entering adult
continuing education classes to avoid becoming a casualty
of an out-dated understanding of technology.
So go online and search for the adult continuing education
classes that best fit your need. Because being fully functional
in today's workforce is an absolute must.
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