Dear Colleagues:
Many of you may be following the discussion about the recent New York Times survey on the unemployment rate for individuals who graduate from a four-your institution. It is related to many of the media reports (and occasional LINCS discussions) about the costs and benefits of a college education (and whether students make it to graduation).
I would like to suggest that the only way for adult learners to have a clear picture of the costs and benefits of college (or any type of postsecondary education and training) is to ask the questions and run the numbers. One of the best publications that I have run across is available in the LINCS Resource Collection: Integrating Career Awareness into the ABE and ESOL Classroom.
I want to highlight the Word format that lets you modify the worksheets to meet the specific needs of your students. Along with activities like, Comparing Schools, earlier activities on career exploration, college and financial aid vocabulary, and educational options are important first steps. The activity that I find adults learn the most from is the informational interview (and it makes a good planning/speaking/writing activity for students).
In addition, Mapping Your Financial Journey: Helping Adults Plan for College, provides worksheet that go into more of the financial details.
How do you help students weigh the cost and benefits of going on?
Cynthia