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Six Higher Education Mega Trends
What They Mean for the Distance Learning - Continued
Mega Trend #3: Corporate America and countless entrepreneurs are beginning to see opportunities for big profits in education.
Lewis Perelman, in his 1992 book, School's Out, made the statement that hyperlearning" (now called "distance learning") is the greatest business opportunity since Rockefeller found oil. Today, his prediction is coming true.
Analysts estimate the for-profit component of the U.S. education and training industry will grow from $2.1 billion revenue in 2002 to $33.6 billion in 2005.
The latest edition of Bears' Guide to Earning Degrees by Distance Learning lists more than 2,500 online schools, up from 750 just ten years ago.
The U.S. corporate segment of the online learning market is projected to grow by a factor of five, from $2.2 billion to #11 billion by the end of 2003. McDonald's, Coca-Cola, Dow Chemical, IBM and Motorola have all hopped on the corporate university/distance learning bandwagon. Many more are expected to follow. According to an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, the number of corporate universities in the United States has grown from 400 in 1988 to over 2,000 today.
What it means for distance learners:
As the demand for marketable skills increases, corporations and online schools will increasingly compete with universities in educating their employees. Employers will increasingly prefer to send their employees to online or in-house training programs due to the fewer on-the-job hours lost and due to faster graduation rates.
Mega trend #4: Recent statistics from the Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Education show that adult students are the fastest growing educational demographic growing 35 percent from 1970 to 2000.
- In 1974, only a third of college students were over 25 years old. By 1990, 40 percent were over 25. Today, 63% of all college students 25 years old or older in age.
- The proportion of adult students going to school will continue to increase. Students under 25 are projected to increase by only 4 percent, but those over 25, by 16 percent.
- "By the year 2006, 50 percent of the U.S. workforce will be over age 50, according to the United States Department of Labor. According to Karlen MacKay, senior vice president at Sperion Human Capital Consulting Group: "This is the workforce that was rewarded for stability. They're the one's who have to learn to be resilient. She adds, "old dogs do learn new tricks."
What it means to distance learners:
The influx of older students has drastically changed the educational culture of higher education. Older students:
Are less interested in political ideology and more interested in the marketplace.
- Prefer to attend college part-time and expect to have greater access to educational resources.
- Expect flexibility.
- Tend to turn to wealth creation rather than political revolution. Economic logic has replaces political logic.
- Insist on courses that will render them more capable as employees, entrepreneurs and executives.
Campuses must now be very market-driven. With the shift toward more marketplace dynamics, students will "shop" where they can get the most for their money. Older students behave more like customers take more responsibility for what they want, and can exercise more responsibility in paying for it.
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