Building an applied science to support working learners

Despite widespread recognition of the need for measurably effective and accessible learning opportunities for adult Americans, the nation is without shared scientific or policy goals for serving this vast population and lacks protocols for the cross-sector collaborative activity such service requires. Our project seeks to envision how to fill this gap.

Working learners simultaneously pursue paid employment and postsecondary education. They are the majority of Americans in college, yet a full understanding of their assets and needs has been limited by the tendency for educators, employers, and researchers alike to presume that work and school are separate worlds.

We invite you to join fellow researchers, practitioners, workforce advocates, and business leaders to frame a national agenda for an applied science to improve opportunities for working learners. Over a series of weekly two-hour sessions on four consecutive Wednesdays in July, we will convene plenaries and small working groups organized to address 6 BIG QUESTIONS:

*Who are working learners, and how can we best recognize and honor their diversity?

*How can we improve job search and employer evaluation, hiring and promotion practices to better and more equitably serve working learners?

*How should we grow the sciences of adult learning?

*How can we best support the academic engagement and persistence of working learners?

*How can we foster stronger connections between working learners, colleges, universities and workplaces?

*What systems should we build to observe, measure, and compare the learning, occupational, and other gains from educational opportunities for working learners? 

Our work is part of a national effort to correct this presumption and build tractable knowledge to improve opportunities for working learners.

This is the third meeting in a series of four.