The need for adult continuing eduction

Times are different these days. Back even two decades ago, once you had a good job you were in that job for life. Go back further and you could even say that once your father had a good job, you were pretty much assured of being able to follow in his footsteps. These legacy jobs were especially prominent in the automotive industry, where GM and Ford had what was almost an institutional policy of hiring the sons (and sometimes, daughters) of their employees. President Obama even highlighted this in his campaign, and specifically how people who thought their futures were secure have had to change their outlook.

This is why adult continuing education has become so important. Not only have some of America's biggest companies gone belly-up (hello, Chrysler!), but the companies that still actually do business in the US are looking for highly skilled, specialized workers that a good old high school diploma - and in some cases, even a college degree - just can't prepare you for.

Colleges have taken advantage of this surge in twenty-and-thirty-somethings returning to school by opening their doors to night classes, summer programs, weekend classes, et cetera. New York University, for example, offers adult continuing education classes in everything from computer networking to accounting to electrical engineering. All of these jobs are in high demand, and a degree in one of those fields (which in some cases must be followed up with a licence to practice) can provide the type of job security that msot people are desperate for in these uncertain financial times.

While finding a new field or a better job is one of the primary reasons adult continuing education has boomed recently, there are other reasons as well: The rapid advance of technology has made people who were once secure in their high-tech jobs suddenly wary of being overtaken by the times. Folks who graduated from college in the '90s with degrees in computer engineering or networking don't have obsolete degrees, but the information from their classes at that time are damn near obsolete. Computer networks have changed drastically over the last ten years, with new codes and languages and - in the case of Linux - entirely new operating systems cropping up seemingly every day. These are people who, like doctors or lawyers, need to keep their knowledge of their field of work current. As such, many many folks are entering adult continuing education classes to avoid becoming a casualty of an out-dated understanding of technology.

So go online and search for the adult continuing education classes that best fit your need. Because being fully functional in today's workforce is an absolute must.