Credly-Endorsed Course in Adult Learner Recruitment Now Available at cael.org

Members tell CAEL that increasing adult learner enrollment and improving credit for prior learning capacities are their top concerns. Over the past two years, they have traded places as the number one issue reported in CAEL’s annual membership survey. 

In a sense, they are two sides of the same coin. CPL itself can boost enrollment. CAEL members are using the Credit Predictor tools to enhance this effect. With demographics and dispositions shifting among traditionally aged college candidates and a growing population of more than 40 million Comebackers, postsecondary education institutions are increasingly focused on resources that can help recruit and enroll adult learners. 

A new Credly-endorsed CAEL professional development offering is adding to these resources. The course, Adult Learners are not Unicorns! Create a Disciplined and Successful Adult Learner Recruitment Strategy, is tailored for enrollment and marketing professionals. It focuses on helping them better understand the complex and ever-changing landscape of digital advertising to adult learners and workers.

The course is the result of a partnership between CAEL and CollegeAPP, a data analytics service company specializing in the higher ed sector and the leading adult learner recruitment strategy service in the U.S. 

Informed by findings from a survey of more than 300,000 potential adult learners, the largest study of its kind, the course reveals the motivations and barriers that affect adult learners’ decisions about enrollment, modality, and institution type. It is presented as an asynchronous set of modules designed to simplify and demystify digital marketing.

Learning outcomes include:

• Making data-informed decisions in marketing campaigns.
• Asking relevant questions of data and media platforms to gain deeper insights for crafting successful marketing campaigns.
• Formulating, adjusting, and directing marketing campaigns based on data analytics and enrollment goals.
• Understanding the pros and cons of first-, second-, and third-party data.
• Learning the history and trajectory of data use and privacy rules and regulations.

Successfully completing the course confers a Credly digital badge upon participants. The inaugural cohort begins July 21 and will be followed by a September cohort. Cohort schedules for 2026 will be released later this year. Private, ad hoc cohorts are also available for groups of 25 or more. 

For more information and to register, visit CAEL’s professional development and training page.