Tens of Millions of Older Adults Want to Go to College

Over 1 / 4 of U.S. adults between the ages of 25 and 64—representing 41.7 million individuals—intend to enroll in some sort of greater training program or coaching inside the subsequent two years, in accordance to a brand new report from the Council for Grownup and Experiential Studying (CAEL) and CollegeAPP, a knowledge analytics service.

The report, launched Tuesday, explores which grownup learners are keen to enroll in faculty, why, and what obstacles they face, drawing on a survey of upward of 300,000 individuals fielded between 2019 and 2025.

The survey discovered that greater shares of Black (43 p.c), Hispanic (40 p.c) and feminine (30 p.c) adults had been intent on enrolling. Motivation to enroll was additionally greater amongst youthful adults ages 25 to 34 (41 p.c), low-income learners (35 p.c), and adults with some faculty however no diploma (33 p.c). But some of the identical teams, reminiscent of low-income college students, are the most definitely to face obstacles to enrollment, the report says. Most respondents, 81 p.c, reported value as a barrier; 67 p.c cited time constraints.

Almost half of grownup learners (43 p.c) had been keen to enroll to acquire abilities for his or her present careers, whereas 35 p.c described “studying and self-improvement” as their motivation. A few fifth expressed a want to change careers.

The report additionally discovered {that a} greater share of adults confirmed curiosity in short-term, workforce-aligned packages at technical and neighborhood faculties (52 p.c) than in four-year establishments (48 p.c).

“The report makes it clear that intent to enroll is prevalent but in addition divergent,” Earl Buford, CAEL president, stated in a information launch. “The implications are additionally clear: Enrollment methods, which historically consigned grownup learners to a monolithic ‘nontraditional’ pupil class, should proceed to evolve. Whereas there have been considerable strides in participating learners with some faculty and no diploma, they’re in no way the one vital section of the tens of tens of millions with intent to enroll.”

(This story has been up to date to right the quantity of survey respondents.)