Demographic trends tell us that the next century has significant ethnic, gender and age shifts in store for the educational establishment. To begin with, the proportion of young people continues to decline in the general population. It will take constant retraining just to maintain competence within an occupation. Rather than working their way through college, future generations will need to college their way through work. Even the elderly, faced with a longer life span and declining incomes, have started returning to school.
Elder hostels are only the opening wedge.
We can anticipate that the future of adult education will be a blend of occupational training and cultural enrichment. While significant, age is not the only future demographic factor. America is becoming more diverse in terms of ethnic composition. The U.S. population now has a 75 percent preponderance of European ethnic stock. If current trends continue, the proportion will have dropped to fifty percent half a century from now as the ranks of minorities are swelled by immigration and higher birth rates.