Member Matters August 2025

A Monthly Lookback at Some of the Good Work in the CAEL Membership Community

Accelerating Adult Learning
Several CAEL members (not to mention CAEL) were featured in an article on the growing national trend of embracing CPL as adult learners become even more critical to the higher ed landscape (The Hechinger Report).

The University of Maine System has approved four universities to pilot 90-credit applied bachelor's programs designed for adult learners returning to higher education to earn a "door-opening degree." Following its approval, UMS has asked the New England Commission for Higher Education to authorize the pilots at its November meeting (UMS).

Also within the University of Maine System, in a first-of-its-kind offering aimed at adult learners, students can earn a University of Maine at Farmington public policy degree through the YourPace program at the University of Maine at Presque Isle. YourPace offers asynchronous competency-based education via a series of 100% online modules that students complete at their own pace. Over the past five years, the program has doubled UMPI's enrollment annually (UMPI).

Hands-on Learning
Bermuda Electric Light Company Limited recognized a Dalton State College associate professor who was on loan to teach in the BELCO apprenticeship program at Bermuda College (BELCO).

Old Dominion University has launched a series featuring student interns to highlight the impact of work-based learning (ODU).

Pikes Peak State College and the Pikes Peak Workforce Center teamed up to create hands-on learning opportunities and better visibility of career pathways for high school students considering health care, a sector that faces significant shortages (The Colorado Springs Gazette).

Central New Mexico Community College is offering "credit for present learning" by forming internship programs at employers where students already work. Once established, the programs help fund salaries while creating creditable learning opportunities for students out of the jobs they hold (New America).

Creative Credentials
Eastern Washington University is using its participation in a national learning and employment records coalition to introduce microcredentials tailored to high-demand degrees. The project will also help develop a system for identifying microcredentials arising from experiential learning (EWU).

College of DuPage will be one of only nine colleges in the U.S. and the only one in the Midwest to offer certificates in the growing horticultural therapy field when a pair of certificates launches in the fall (College of DuPage).

Career Pathways Forward
Middle Georgia State University is now authorized to offer the same level of enhanced air traffic controller programming available through the FAA's academy in Oklahoma City, an arrangement that will increase the number of ATC students as the country faces a shortage of controllers (Middle Georgia State University).

Thanks to a $500,000 grant from the Walton Family Foundation, North Carolina Central University will conduct a research initiative dedicated to alleviating career pathway barriers confronting "opportunity youth," defined as "young men, ages 18 to 24, who are disconnected from education or employment," in the Research Triangle region (NCCU).

As part of the Skills for Success program with the Texas Workforce Commission, Texas State Technical College is offering employer-customized training packages for their workers that cover "essential soft skills," such as communication, organization, teamwork, problem-solving, critical thinking, digital literacy, conflict resolution, time management, and more. The program is available at no cost to private employers with full-time employees anywhere in the state (TWC).

Awards and Other Achievements
The University of Phoenix's director of admissions and evaluation has been appointed chair of the Postsecondary Electronic Standards Council board of directors for fiscal year 2025-2026. The PESC is a "nonprofit, community-based organization that develops and promotes open data standards to improve digital interoperability across the education sector" (University of Phoenix).

The president of Howard Community College has been appointed to the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) Commission on Research and Community College Trends and Issues, which "advises association leaders on policies and initiatives nationwide that could emerge as trends and challenges for two-year institutions throughout the United States" (HCC).