Adults can turn experience to credits for a speedy degree

The youth dearth -- fewer 18-year-olds -- has hit colleges hard, writes Hechinger's Jon Marcus. Many are making it easier for adults to turn their experiences and skills into college credits and low-cost, fast-track degrees.

Until recently, earning academic credit for skills acquired on the job or in the military was "complex, slow and expensive," Marcus writes. Only about 1 in 10 students completed the process.

But many colleges see adult students as a way to fill empty seats. Nearly half are adding more ways for students to receive credits, according to a recent survey.

"Students who get credit for prior learning save between $1,500 and $10,200 apiece and nearly seven months off the time it takes to earn a bachelor’s degree," reports Marcus.

Many Americans tried college, earned some credits but then dropped out. With credits for skills they've acquired on the job, they have a realistic shot at earning a degree.

"Online behemoths Western Governors University and Southern New Hampshire University, with which brick-and-mortar colleges compete, are way ahead of them in conferring credit for past experience," he writes. Conventional colleges are scrambling to catch up.

In the past, students seeking prior-learning credits would submit portfolios, take tests or write essays, which would be assessed by professors, writes Marcus. It was slow and subjective. "Now some institutions, states, systems and independent companies are standardizing this work or using artificial intelligence to do it. The growth of certifications from professional organizations such as Amazon Web Services and the Computing Technology Industry Association, or CompTIA, has helped, too."

“You literally punch [an industry certification] into our database and it tells you what credit you can get,” said Philip Giarraffa, executive director of articulation and academic pathways at Miami Dade College. “When I started here, that could take anywhere from two weeks to three months.” The number of credits awarded septupled in four years.

Employers are partnering with universities, writes Marcus. "The University of Memphis works with FedEx, headquartered nearby, to give employees with supervisory training academic credit they can use toward a degree in organizational leadership, helping them move up in the company."

The University of North Carolina System, eager to keep skilled workers in state, now "lets active-duty and former military service members find out almost instantly, before applying for admission, if their training could be used for academic credit."

Professors traditionally have resisted prior-learning credits, worried they'd lose students and dubious about the quality of training provided elsewhere, Marcus writes. Administrators "worried about the loss of revenue from awarding credits for which students would otherwise have had to pay." (There's a lot of resistance to transfer credits too.)

"While many recognize it as a recruiting incentive, most public universities and colleges have had to be ordered to confer more credits for prior learning by legislatures or governing boards," he writes. "Private, nonprofit colleges remain stubbornly less likely to give it."

Most colleges charge a fee for evaluating prior learning -- sometimes it costs as much as taking the class. Typically, students must apply and be accepted before learning whether credits for prior learning will be awarded.

Colleges say they're lowering roadblocks, writes Marcus.

The non-elite schools are in an adapt-or-die situation. Not only are they competing with online colleges, they're also facing a future in which employers are moving away from requiring superfluous credentials. Fewer workers will be told they need a degree -- not just demonstrated competence -- to compete for a promotion.

As grades inflate and credentials lose value, testing will be more and more important. Can you do the job? Prove it.