Washington University in St. Louis is reimagining how to serve adult learners.
In June 2023, the prestigious institution announced its renamed and revamped University College as the School of Continuing & Professional Studies. Along with this name change comes a revitalized commitment to instructing adults of all ages – and backgrounds – through “focused degrees and custom programs” that help students succeed in the St. Louis job market.
“What we found is that there is a need for adult education curriculum,” CAPS Dean Sean Armstrong says. “A need to fill the gaps for professional students, for students who want to get into a specific field. These are individuals who may have been working for five, six, seven years or longer, and they want to come back. That’s the age range we want to impact.”
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CAPS school leaders joined with local employers to develop education programs that fit the needs of the St. Louis economy and put the approximately 1,150 students into high-paying jobs upon graduation. As a result, initial program offerings focus on rapidly growing fields like data, healthcare and management.
WashU cites CAPS’ pre-nursing program – which helps learners prepare to enter nursing programs and was developed in partnership with the Goldfarb School of Nursing at Barnes-Jewish College – is a successful example of this approach. The school offers a range of options for continuing education, from certificates to degree programs, all representing a “true WashU education” in that coursework is challenging and standards are high. Each program is designed to fit the needs of adult learners, with approximately half of all classes hosted online.
“Our student support model is a coaching model; it’s the how-to,” Armstrong says. “For people returning after 20 years, they may not feel like coming back. They may not know how to balance family life, work and school. How they’re able to balance those things is how our support system will help. There’s also a career coaching component to it as well, including resume-writing, job-searching and more.”
Other key focuses for CAPS include data analytics, sustainability and education. Each represents either a growing sector among St. Louis employers or an area of need, like healthcare, to ensure companies have the capacity to properly serve their customers.
St. Louis is uniquely positioned as a proving ground for this kind of program. The city is an epicenter for industry, home to key company headquarters like Edward Jones, BJC Healthcare, Emerson and more. It’s also home to key higher education institutions like WashU, University of Missouri–St. Louis and Saint Louis University, and it touts the largest metropolitan population in the state.
Given the right education at the right time, there are plenty of opportunities for locals to contribute to driving the economy. So for Armstrong and the rest of his colleagues at CAPS, the sky really is the limit.
“I think we are primed for greatness,” he says. “I think this is an exciting time.”
Washington University in St. Louis, 1 Brookings Drive, St. Louis, wustl.edu