Freshman Seneca College student Mark Sudhkeo has one message for anyone considering a return to school: You're never too old to learn and it's never too late to make a change in your life direction.
Mark Sudhkeo, who worked in banking for 15 years, is now studying for a Social Service Worker diploma program specializing in immigrants and refugees at Toronto-based Seneca College. Photo: J.P. Moczulski for The Globe and Mail
Mark Sudhkeo, who worked in banking for 15 years, is now studying for a Social Service Worker diploma program specializing in immigrants and refugees at Toronto-based Seneca College. Photo: J.P. Moczulski for The Globe and Mail
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"I see life as a learning experience and in today's world you can never have too much in terms of qualifications."
The 52-year-old knows what he's talking about. After a lifetime working in business, the last 15 years in the banking industry, the father of three young daughters is in the first year of Toronto-based Seneca College's two-year Social Service Worker diploma program specializing in immigrants and refugees.
The rationale for his career switch came from life experience, he says. "As an immigrant myself [from Guyana], in my working life I felt totally discriminated against. When I lost my job last year I felt in my heart I wanted a job that helps people, especially those who have been discriminated against."
Mr. Sudhkeo may be on the older side of adults returning to college, but he's certainly not alone.
Seneca's demographic breakdown for 2009 enrolment shows an increase in all older adult age categories from one year ago. These ranged from 28 per cent in the students aged 31 to 35 to a remarkable 88-per-cent increase in students 41 and over.
Behind numbers like these at Seneca and other colleges in Ontario lies a massive shift in employment away from manufacturing industries, coupled with the recent global recession and economic uncertainty.
Funding from Second Careers, an Ontario government program aimed at retraining laid-off workers, is behind some of this surge in students, acknowledges Seneca president David Agnew.
"An 88-per-cent increase in students over 41 is pretty phenomenal and Second Careers is behind some of those numbers," he says. "But there is also a big increase coming from an immigrant population coming with credentials but needing to come back to school for Canadian credentials or training in something new."
On the national scene, numbers are somewhat hard to come by. The head of the association representing Canadian colleges says global statistics "just don't exist and no one has good statistics on older student numbers," says James Knight, executive director of the Association of Canadian Community Colleges.
However, he adds, reports from individual colleges show that college enrolment is up across the country and older student enrolment is increasing.
He attributes the increases to several factors: recognition that colleges produce employment-ready grads, and good bridging programs for adults who lack necessary skills or prerequisites.
Areas of the country experiencing the greatest job losses reflect the largest increases, "but it's not just southern Ontario," Knight says. "The oil industry has contracted in Alberta and there is a large number whose employment has ended."
Bow Valley College in Calgary traditionally has a large mature student population based on its focus on accessibility. This year it has reported an 18 per cent increase in students over 30 years of age.
"The increase is quite connected to the economy," says Bow Valley's vice-president of learning, Anna Kae Todd.
"It's can be very scary to come back to school," she says, "It's a huge commitment and students want to know that there's a job at the end of it."
A new start and a new career is definitely what Douglas College graduate Ellen Niemer was seeking when at age 47 she entered the Print Futures program. She'd raised her son as a single mother working at various jobs, mostly as a paralegal.
"I knew I wasn't happy in the jobs I'd had," she says, but it took a tragedy of someone she admired before she re-evaluated her life.
In 2006, lawyer and activist Dugald Christie was killed while cycling across Canada to raise awareness of access to justice for people who are poor. Ms. Niemer had volunteered for his non-profit organization and his death "devastated me. Dugald was so passionate about what he believed in and it made me really examine my life."
Unlike many older students who seek career counselling before making a choice about college, for Ms. Niemer it was "almost serendipity." She saw an ad for the program and it awakened her life-long passion for writing.
She applied, enrolled and graduated — along the way earning a coveted job as editor at the magazine where she'd interned as a student and worked during the summer after her first year.
"Up until now, I'd done jobs that just came along. I had bills to pay and my son to raise. This is really the first job I've had where I can say I love it," Ms. Niemer says.
Douglas College's acting vice-president of education, Jan Carrie, says employment in the Vancouver area hasn't suffered the kind of dislocation being experienced by the auto or resource sectors. However, the New Westminster school has seen its older population increase 5 per cent this year.
She acknowledges that older students do present challenges for educational institutions. "The advising piece is really essential," Ms. Carrie says.
Seneca president Mr. Agnew concurs, adding that "the reality is that our student support services are stretched, but, as in life, there is nothing like having support. Advising is a big part of student success so we've been doing a lot of that because there's such a strong correlation between student success and student supports."
As an older student, the support is important, says Mr. Sudhkeo. "It's a challenge to juggle college, kids and jobs, but it's a very positive experience. You have to put negativity aside."
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