Adult Learners: Considerations for Education and Training (Adult Education and Retraining) (Essay‪)‬

We live in trying times. A War, recession, high unemployment, foreclosures, private and public sector downsizing, and many other issues contribute to our current, seemingly dire, situation. Even though times seem bleak, there is a bright side. Many of the unemployed will need education and training to get back into the workforce. This provides an opportunity for career and technical education at all levels. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (October 2010), the largest percentage of the total unemployed (58.7 percent) were persons 25 to 54 years of age with an additional 13.7 percent in the 55 years of age and older category. Since a lot of the unemployed will be looking at education and training programs to help them to be more marketable and competitive in the current job market, it is important for us to look at the principles or characteristics of adult learners and how we can incorporate these into our education and training programs.