This post originally appeared on the Vail Centre blog.
If you see yourself as someone who never wants to stop growing and learning, you’re in good company.
According to a 2016 Pew Research Center study, 73% of adults consider themselves lifelong learners. On top of this, 63% of working adults are considered professional learners, in that they’ve taken a course or received additional training in the past 12 months to improve their job skills or advance their career.
While it’s great that so many Americans want to increase their expertise in a particular field, enrolling in a higher education program can have a huge downside: student debt. According to The Institute for College Access and Success, seven in 10 seniors who graduated from public and nonprofit colleges in 2013 had student loan debt, with an average of $28,400 per borrower. Getting a master’s degree or a PhD can put you in even more in debt. The average cost of a graduate degree starts at $30,000 and an MBA can run you upwards of $100,000 to $200,000 in debt and expenses over just a two-year period.
The Trend of ‘Stacked Credentials’ and Short-Course Programs
Due to the high cost of higher education, it’s easy to see why alternative programs are becoming an attractive option for those seeking additional training and skills to help them move up in their industry. Known as “stacked credentials,” this new trend is changing the way we think of continuous learning. Instead of spending another two-to-five years in a degree program and accruing more debt, colleges and universities are attracting new students through certificate and “short course” programs.
These newly created programs are the fastest-growing category of higher education offerings through colleges and universities. Certificate and short course programs are becoming more appealing to professionals for many reasons. Instead of dedicating years to a degree, you dedicate days or weeks per course. These programs also cost far less than a semester’s worth of classes. Rather than having to take a required course schedule at a university, adults can enroll in a weekly or monthly curriculum that’s tailored to their interests or career objectives.
Another added benefit of these alternative programs is that they often offer open enrollment. Working professionals don’t have to pass any admission tests or go through the hassle of registering for a full degree program. For those who work full-time and are already in management or leadership roles, they need short, concentrated professional development programs that fit within their busy schedule.
A Booming Non-Degree Program Industry
As the “stacked credentials” method becomes a more appealing option for upper-level professionals, the number of institutions and organizations offering certificate programs has boomed in recent years. From 2013 to 2014, graduate schools in the U.S. awarded approximately 36,000 certificates. Some universities now offer triple the number of certificate programs they offered a mere five years ago.
Outside of higher education, other post-graduate training programs have also become big business. Accelerator programs typically provide working professionals the opportunity to advance their skills and secure a higher-paying position in their industry. Organizations like the Turing School of Software & Design and Galvanize offer short-term courses and mentoring for those seeking a career in fields like engineering, web development and data science.
These accelerator programs tend to boast about their high success rates, which are often self-reported. While many who participate in these courses may indeed find a well-paying position in their field, accelerator programs are typically tailored to the tech industry and frequently receive funding from venture capital firms. Places like Galvanize are designed to train recent graduates and give them the skills the tech industry needs right now, but not necessarily educate workers for future and continued success as they advance to upper-level or leadership roles.
The Potential Downside of Tech-Focused Accelerator Programs
Accelerator programs can be very beneficial for growing tech startups looking to hire qualified workers. However, these programs have a tendency to focus more on serving the needs of companies, not employees. Someone who pays for a course from a for-profit organization may discover that their credentials don’t transfer across industries or pull as much weight as a certificate from an accredited university or college.
Also, accelerator programs have yet to extend far outside the tech industry. Many industries — including hospitality — are eager to recruit skilled employees and offer advanced training programs but may lack the robust funding provided by angel investors who are only interested in putting more money into Silicon Valley. If the tech bubble were to burst, these accelerator programs might also bite the dust, and their credentials could end up without much merit.
Even programs and courses offered at universities don’t always meet the needs of professionals looking to increase their job prospects and further their career. The Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes (OLLI) offer non-credit courses for adult learners over the age of 50 at 120 colleges and universities in the U.S. While OLLI classes are taught in-person on college campuses, these courses are mainly geared towards retirees who are interested in lifelong learning and continued education in the arts and sciences.
The Need For Accredited Courses Tailored To The Business World
The rise of tech-focused accelerator programs, non-degree classes for retirees and more colleges and universities offering certificate programs shows that many adults and working professionals are seeking short-term educational options to advance their knowledge and improve their skills.
As more people desire to continue their education in a non-traditional form, both the business world and those in higher education will need to figure out the best ways to accommodate these “professional learners” — who want to keep learning for life.
Recently, other types of alternative programs for professional development have strived to create a happy medium between graduate-level coursework and specialized training for the workplace. Vail Centre offers certificate programs from top-level universities, including Yale, Cornell, Dartmouth and Duke University. Esteemed professors are flown in to teach a three-day or week-long course that is specifically targeted towards the needs and demands of the business world and hospitality industry, including nonprofit management, leadership and entrepreneurship.
Vail Centre’s certificate courses and signature programs give working professionals the opportunity to learn from some of the best educators at Ivy League institutions, but also acquire new leadership and management skills that they can apply directly to the workplace and the hospitality industry. Vail Centre seeks to provide the type of education and training that both upper-management and entry-level employees need, while also fostering a spirit of lifelong learning for the greater Vail and Eagle County communities.