Dr. Adele Hermann, director of the South Central Coast Center of Excellence (COE), provided in February an overview of the adult education population in the region at a summit to explore strategies to expand and promote adult education enrollment and completion.

The Adult Pathways Summit was organized by the South Central Coast Regional Consortium and included guest speakers from schools of continuing education and extended learning in Southern California.

The COE’s presentation reported on key characteristics of the region’s potential adult education population, noting the cities with the highest concentrations of adults ages 25-64. Using data from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, the presentation included a county-level breakdown of adults by level of education, fluency in English, labor force participation for older adults, and adults with disabilities.

Dr. Hermann shared data on the adult education pipeline, noting the number of program participants, program completions, post-program employment, and post-program earnings for adult education students. Notably, adult education students attain a 25% median change in earnings after exiting their programs.

Lastly, Dr. Hermann reported on Student Success Metrics data, underscoring a regional completion rate of 64% for enrollees in noncredit CTE Taxonomy of Programs (TOP) Codes for workforce participation courses. The presentation concluded by highlighting the barriers to employment for adult education students, namely low literacy and single parenthood.Download the presentation here.