There isn’t a “magic bullet” for outreach and marketing that guarantees you will enroll adult learners. Adults are a large and diverse population and their reasons for pursuing education - and issues that may be standing in their way - are broad and complex. How do campuses find a population of prospective students who are disconnected from educational systems? What strategies are providing effective to reach adults? Does marketing always need to be costly to work well? This interactive session is designed to arm participants with an outreach action plan based on their target market and resources. 

Learning Outcomes include:

• Understand adult learner personas and how to tailor messaging
• Use storytelling to connect to adult learners
• Develop an enrollment approach that addresses potential audiences, partners, and communication channels

Successful Completion of this workshop will count as 6 hours of professional development in competencies 2,4 when applying for NAWDP's CWDP recertification.  

In this pre-conference session, participants will work in teams to connect their regional workforce ecosystem to serve all residents, particularly the unemployed, working poor, and disconnected members of their community. This will involve developing a step-by-step plan in coordination with community-based organizations, employers and employer groups, higher education institutions of all types, short-term training providers, and workforce development boards and organizations. You can bring a team from your region to work on a plan you can utilize right after the session! Or you can come as an individual participant and be assigned a role and region to work with to develop a mock plan.

In this session, you should expect to learn:

• How to center the adult learner in your plan
• How to create or identify a workforce intermediary to sustain the work
• How to create an industry partnership and/or explore other employer coalitions that meet the needs of your region
• How to build extended career pathways that benefit adult learners
• How to identify the challenges and opportunities available through technology platforms that enable career navigation, credit for prior learning, learning and employment records, and data collection and impact reporting
• Understand the roles of community-based organizations, employers and employer groups, higher education institutions of all types, short-term training providers, and workforce development boards and organizations in building a truly connected workforce ecosystem

Participants will leave the session with a draft or mock plan and a toolkit to use in work in their own region.

This workshop is designed to cover all the questions you have about credit for prior learning but were afraid to ask! Designed as an introduction to credit for prior learning, the workshop will begin by laying a foundation by exploring the different opportunities students have to demonstrate their knowledge and learning, and the impact CPL has on organizational practices and student success. This will be followed with an interactive discussion about best practices in implementing an effective CPL program within your institution. Participants will engage in case studies that examine principles of organizational change and how a CPL program becomes integral to student learning and success. Using sample documents, scenarios, and institutional examples, participants will work collaboratively to create an action plan and design processes for introducing or expanding CPL options to gain support from key campus constituencies. As a result, participants will be able to build an action plan for executing a credit for prior learning program on their own campuses. 

Learning Outcomes:

• Describe the various forms of CPL and utilize the steps, tools and procedures in the CPL process;
• Illustrate and apply the CAEL principles of best practice in CPL;
• Articulate the roles and responsibilities of those involved in the CPL process;
• Determine decision points for effective CPL implementation;
• Identify strategies for gaining buy-in from faculty, administrators, & students;
• Distinguish options for CPL-related organizational structures and action plans.

Target Audience: CPL owners (Coordinators/ Administrators/degree planners), University Administration, Registrars, Faculty Members who advise course scheduling/ degree plans

This four-hour pre-conference workshop is designed to equip academic leaders (Department Chairs, Deans, Provosts, etc.) with the tools they need to effectively, efficiently, and collaboratively lead Prior Learning Assessment (PLA) and Credit for Prior Learning (CPL) initiatives at their institutions. 

Led by CAEL experts and local practitioners, attendees will have the opportunity to:

• Learn the fundamentals of PLA and CPL
• Learn the individual, institutional, and societal benefits of PLA and CPL
• Share experiences and best practices with peers
• Learn effective and collaborative change management strategies
• Outline a plan for leading PLA and CPL on their campus

Successful Completion of this workshop will count as 3 hours of professional development in competencies 4,5 when applying for NAWDP's CWDP recertification.