Cecily O'Connor
RedwoodAge.com

As more older Americans choose work over retirement, community colleges are developing programs to help them prepare for second careers.

There's a wide opportunity for community colleges to offer curriculum that matches boomers' experience, skills and interests with "encore careers" in critical service fields, according to Civic Ventures, a San Francisco think tank.

To stimulate job training, Civic Ventures, with support from the MetLife Foundation, announced Thursday it will give $25,000 grants to 10 community colleges as part of a national effort to train boomers for careers in education, health care and social services. The colleges, which include Baltimore City Community College in Maryland and GateWay Community College in Phoenix, Ariz., will develop a wide range of initiatives that address workforce needs in their communities.

Studies show that the public interest sector - the fastest growing part of the U.S. labor market - will face the greatest talent shortages as boomers, the oldest of which are now 61, leave the workforce.

Even as those labor shortage fears loom, recruiters are beginning to see a trend among older professionals who are “re-careering” into new jobs to stave off boredom in retirement, feel productive, find a new intellectual challenge or pad insufficient retirement savings. Finding the right opportunity remains a challenge, however.

"For tens of millions of baby boomers, a new phase of life and work is opening up between the end of midlife careers and the beginning of true old age," said Marc Freedman, founder and chief executive officer of Civic Ventures and author of Encore: Finding Work That Matters in the Second Half of Life. "Traditional educational offerings for 'seniors' just won't cut it anymore, particularly for those seeking to make a difference in their communities."

The grant winners will provide support and training for those over 50 who want to transition to teaching jobs, work in gerontology, become nursing instructors or work in nonprofits after a career in the for-profit sector. After a year of implementing their initiatives, the colleges will collaborate with Civic Ventures to report publicly on how to prepare boomers for encore careers that benefit society.

Already, more than 1 million baby boomers are attending one of the nation’s 1,200 community colleges to retool for their next careers, according to the American Association of Community Colleges. College administrators expect enrollments to grow, too, as more boomers age.

Grant Options
Students can explore a wide range of opportunities, as the colleges plan to use the grants in several ways:

Baltimore City Community College (Baltimore, Md.) will use an executive outplacement model to help African-American women over age 50 develop individual plans to transition into encore careers.

Broward Community College (Ft. Lauderdale, Fl.) will do extensive marketing, including free seminars and career counseling, to inform boomers about local encore career and service opportunities.

Central Piedmont Community College (Charlotte, NC) will design and deliver a leadership training program to support boomers interested in transitioning from careers in the for-profit to the non-profit sector.

Coastline Community College (Fountain Valley, Ca.) will develop and offer online and classroom courses for those over 50 preparing for careers in gerontology and elder-care.

Collin County Community College (Allen, Texas) will train boomers who have been laid off from engineering and technology careers - and other boomers interested in teaching - to become certified high school math teachers in one year.

GateWay Community College (Phoenix, Ariz.) will join forces with local employers to help boomers transition to careers as caregivers. Employers will provide instructors, tuition support and flexible jobs.

Owensboro Community and Technical College (Owensboro, Ky.) will train retiring nurses to become adjunct nursing faculty at the community college level. (The national nursing shortage can be traced, in part, to a shortage of nursing faculty.)

Portland Community College (Portland, Ore.) will establish a peer mentoring program for students over 50 enrolled in the college's gerontology certificate or degree program to improve support for older students and to boost retention.

Virginia Community College System (Richmond, Va.) will launch a statewide recruitment effort to attract more boomers with college degrees to their existing statewide, fast-track teacher licensure programs. Partners include the state's 23 community colleges, the Virginia Dept. of Education and K-12 schools.

Washtenaw Community College (Ann Arbor, Mich.) will develop outreach and support programs for mid-career professionals who want to use their training and business experience to help solve societal problems.

"These educational pioneers will make it easier for baby boomers to transition to the purpose-driven jobs so many want, easier for employers to find and hire them, and easier for other educators to meet the career needs of older learners," said Sibyl Jacobson, president and CEO of MetLife Foundation.