Life changes such as unemployment, divorce, or the need for a second income make many realize that higher education may offer them new opportunities. Adults return to sharpen outdated skills. These include people in professions such as law, dentistry, medicine, business and education, who enter continuing education courses to keep abreast of technical changes. These students often find their current employers will fund part or all of their education. Jobs that are currently in the middle of the skill distribution will be the least-skilled occupations of the future, and there will be very few net new jobs for the unskilled.
Adults return to school to explore new career choices.
With changes in the economy, many traditional jobs are offering fewer employment opportunities or have disappeared altogether. Those that remain are requiring greater skills in math, language and reasoning capabilities. Statistics show that most employees will explore an average of four different careers during a life-time. The ability to learn will be the most valuable trait of future employees. We have not even conceived of many future jobs.