Learning doesn’t have to end with your diploma. Vermont’s colleges, universities, technical education centers, and nonprofit organizations offer many opportunities to become a lifelong learner. These programs are ideal for everyone, whether participants are seeking new career skills, new perspectives, or personal enrichment. Importantly, these programs offer a chance for socialization and fun, too.

Continuing Education

College campuses offer on-campus and online learning opportunities for adult or nontraditional students. The Community College of Vermont (CCV, www.ccv.edu), with 12 locations around the state and an online center for learning, offers traditional associate’s degrees in disciplines like graphic design, accounting, communications, hospitality, and medical fields, among many others. They also offer certificates in the fields of health care, child care, website design, and substance abuse.

Currently 1,200 students, or about 18 percent of the student body, take courses without being enrolled in one of these degree or certificate programs. These nondegree courses are known as continuing education. Admissions director Adam Warrington says continuing education students attend for a variety of reasons, like advancing their career skills, changing careers, starting a new business, or simply to learn new skills for personal enrichment.

Central Vermont OLLI members enjoying a recent lecture.
photo: Reidun Nuquist

CCV president Joyce Judy says continuing education is an important part of the college’s offerings. “If you look around in the world today, the expectation is that you’ll continue to evolve the sophistication of your skills,” says Judy. She says whether a student is a new business owner who needs to learn accounting or a professional who is learning website design, CCV’s continuing education courses offer an opportunity to learn new skills at any age.

Judy earned her own master’s degree in education and management as a working adult. Because she already had work experience, she looked for a degree that was practical. CCV student Amity Baker is working to become a certified public accountant, which is starkly different from her earlier training in philosophy. She earned a bachelor’s degree years ago, but continuing education is now part of her strategy to change careers, and she’s already putting her new skills to work as a staff accountant at JMM & Associates in Colchester.

Continuing education courses are offered at the University of Vermont (UVM, http://learn.uvm.edu) and Vermont Technical College (VTC, www.vtc.edu/academics/continuing-education-workforce-development) and at most colleges and universities throughout the state. While other colleges and universities offer traditional programs, VTC offers hands-on applied learning and technical training. Courses at VTC include an introduction to solar PV, cheese making, and an electrical apprenticeship. Certificates and training are offered at VTC in programs like agriculture and food systems, electrical and plumbing, engineering, and health care and green fields such as renewable energy, weatherization, and alternative fuels. The offerings are career focusedand designed for students looking to advance or change careers.

Second Careers

Judy points out that continuing education courses also make sense for those seeking a second career, such as workers who have retired from a long career but still have skills and talent to give. “With Vermont’s aging demographic and shrinking population, we’ve got to keep everybody engaged. People that are ending the chapter of their first career can continue to learn and be productive members of society,” she says.
This is why CCV, along with 20 other colleges from around the country, are convening at a summit at New York University through an organization called Encore (www.encore.org) to discuss how to build a movement to take advantage of people with a lot of experience. “People are retired from a first career,” Judy says, “but still have talent and expertise to offer.” Judy gives herself as an example: “I’m 60, but I see myself as a young 60. I want to do things later in life.”

Senior Learners

Students over age 65 can attend CCV tuition-free. CCV offers a wide variety of courses covering art, music, literature, history, languages, and more. Warrington says there are currently 73 senior students taking advantage of this tuition-free program.

Elder Education Enrichment (EEE, www.eeevermont.org), serving the Burlington area, is another option for senior citizens. It’s billed as lifelong learning without tests, papers, or grades, and although it has “elder” in the title, the programs are open to anyone interested.

EEE has two 12-week semesters a year, in spring (February–May) and fall (September–December). Members gather Monday and Friday afternoons at the United Methodist Church in Burlington to hear lectures on a variety of topics. Some upcoming lectures for April and May are “The Geologic History of Vermont,” “The Evolution and Innovation of the Piano,” and “Portraits of the African American Experience.” A complete list of lectures is posted on EEE’s website. Memberships are $50, or there is a suggested donation of $5 per lecture.

Mary Rutherford, an eight-year volunteer board member for EEE, says their programs typically draw 80 to 100 participants and some bring in as many as 150. “It’s satisfying to see how much the program benefits the senior community,” she says.

Rutherford notes that there are stereotypes about seniors spending their days playing bingo or crocheting doilies at the senior center, but the interest in these programs belies that image. She loves that so many seniors are interested in substantive learning and enjoy the social aspect as well. “I have participants tell me this is the highlight of their week.”

Osher Lifelong Learning

Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes (OLLI, http://learn.uvm.edu/osher-life-long-learning) is a program of the Bernard Osher Foundation in San Francisco. The foundation provides funding for institutes, which are located in all 50 states. The institutes encourage lifelong learning by providing courses for students over age 50. Vermont’s institute is based at UVM’s Continuing and Distance Education, where Cathi Cody-Hudson oversees the on-campus and statewide program.

OLLI runs eight programs around the state, at Brattleboro, Newport, Central Vermont, Lamoille Valley, Rutland, Springfield, St. Johnsbury, and St. Albans—in addition to program offerings at UVM. OLLI members can attend courses at all nine locations, and there is a reciprocal relationship with EEE as well. Membership is annual and costs $30 or $50 for a couple.

Offerings around the state vary. Central Vermont OLLI, for example, offers a series of lectures by experts on everything from wolves to literature, meteorology, cooking, and photography. This March, the group toured the new biomass district heating plant in Montpelier. There is also a cinema series held at the Savoy Theater in Montpelier.

OLLI at UVM is offering courses this spring in beginning yoga and tai chi designed for students over 50, digital photography, birding, cooking, and watercolor; discussions on foreign policy and book discussions; a reading and writing workshop; and cultural and religious studies. Affordable traveling opportunities are also available. A group is traveling to Turkey in May; past trips have included New Orleans, Alaska, France, and Quebec City.

Cody-Hudson says that summer courses for the UVM program will be listed on the website in mid-April and will include day tours to visit a museum and a global produce market in Montreal.

Marge Christie, with Central Vermont OLLI, has been attending lectures for four years and has worked as a volunteer member of the program committee for three years. “I like that it keeps my mind active because of the variety of speakers and topics,” she says. “And it gives me the opportunity to contribute something to our community of seniors.” After working for 26 years as an elementary school teacher at Twinfield Union School in Marshfield, she wanted something to do during her retirement. OLLI fit the bill, she says, because it is “interesting intellectually, yet social, too.”

Christie says participants come to the programs because, like her, they like to keep active mentally and like socializing with others. “There are always a lot of questions for the speaker, and then the participants can talk directly with him or her afterwards. The refreshments encourage people to schmooze a bit, too.”

Christie says the group is mostly seniors, the majority being between 60 and 80 years of age, but that there are always a few younger and older participants as well. The group is roughly half women, and most in the audience have a college education and have had a professional career.

Louise Groleau Ellengwood, of East Montpelier, likes participating in Central Vermont OLLI lectures because of the variety of topics she is exposed to. She can attend one-hour classes on things such as history, agriculture, and the arts, despite having no previous knowledge on those topics. She adds that the cost is minimal and she gets so much out of it.

Nature programming has been Groleau Ellengwood’s favorite, as well as a course on the different types of barns in Vermont. She also likes the poetry and old movies she has been exposed to. “It reels in people that want to keep growing and learning,” she says.

Sarah Galbraith of Marshfield is a freelance writer covering nature and science, outdoor sports, food and agriculture, renewable energy, and people in Vermont.