VaHigherEd.com

There’s not enough Gen Xers out there.  You could call that an oversight for the Boomers - an oversight that will apparently cost many of them a cozy, lazy retirement.

That’s the crux of an article written by Christina Couch for Classes USA.com and picked up by a number of TV stations across Virginia and across the country.  (You can read a version of the article on Richmond’s WRIC site:)  More and more Boomers are finding that their 50s and 60s aren’t the begining of retirment, but rather a second career.

And that’s a good thing.  Our nation has a number of professions, like teaching and nursing, that need trained, mature and experienced people and they can’t find enough of them.

Virginia’s Community Colleges are working to be part of the solution by creating programs that can fill those professional needs by designing programs that meet the personal needs of people seeking a second career.  The VCCS Career Switcher program, which helps people become a teacher through an accelerated 16-week program is an example of that.  In fact, the program was just named the recipient of a competitive national Encore Career Grants.

The bottom line is that there is too much need in our workforce to let these folks slip quietly out to pasture.  And frankly, they hold too much experience and talent to just let it go to waste.  By making it easier for them to transfer to a new career, it’s a win-win for everyone.

Posted by Jeff Kraus