Giving Compass' Take:

• Nontraditional learners can teach us three things about the necessity of education-to-career pathways.

• How are you supporting innovation in education that contributes to the growth and success of nontraditional learners?

• Read more about why nontraditional students should be seen as the future faces of education. 

About three in four undergraduate college students are what policy experts refer to as "nontraditional" learners. These are students who attend college later in life, go to school part-time, work full-time while enrolled or are raising children while earning a degree.

But from the perspective of university leaders and policymakers, these students are all too often thought of as "others," as a group of learners existing outside the norm.

Of course, the reality is that nontraditional learners are everywhere.

They can teach all of us about the importance, and the increasing necessity, of evolving our education-to-career pathways. Here are three things we can — and must — learn from so-called nontraditional students:

  1. The era of one-and-done learning is over: The shelf life of skills is shrinking and technology is transforming nearly every facet of our labor market. It is a paradigm that many more of us should, and may soon have to, embrace.
  2. Learning and earning is no longer an either/or Aspiring students no longer have to choose between going back to school and earning a living. New online tools and evolving attitudes among employers and employees have made learning while working more feasible than ever.
  3. Institutions and employers need to think differently Despite their growing numbers, part-time learners often struggle to earn a degree or credential.  Just one in five part-time students finishes a degree in six years.

Read the full article about nontraditional learners by Marie Cini at Education Dive.