Breaking news! Enrichment courses stage comeback

During the tough recession people cut back on avocational and leisure courses and focussed on professional development. Now, enrichment courses appear to be on their way back.

That’s good news for public schools, recreation departments, community colleges and universities.
In an exclusive LERN survey last month, 87.5 percent of respondents projected increased enrichment enrollments over the next five years.

Enrichment Up

LERN surveyed community colleges, a major sector that has cut back or eliminated enrichment programming such as classes on how to write a custom dissertation. There were many useful enrichment programs that there were no choice but to cut.

Now, some 28 percent report they have seen increases in enrichment registrations compared to five years ago.  Another 37 percent said registrations remained stable with little or no decline.  And 34 percent said they have seen a decline in enrichment enrollments compared with five years ago.

After a period of cutting back on enrichment, now only 7.8 percent say they are considering eliminating enrichment programming.

Stay tuned to LERN for more, and attend our popular Hot Picks for Community Classes roundtable at the big LERN annual conference in San Francisco Nov. 20-23.