This has a strong appeal to the busy older student who is working, studying, and handling family responsibilities all at the same time. It also appeals to the unemployed or underemployed who need better incomes, or at least some income, as quickly as possible. However, it's not just the older student that is attracted to this program. More often that not, they have lifestyles similar to adults and, consequently, require similar learning formats. A community college in Oklahoma runs classes 24 hours a day.
Some colleges have more students enrolled on weekends than during the week.
As community colleges rely increasingly on information and support from external stakeholders to design programs and services, they will begin to supplement traditional academic indicators of performance with external indicators. The consequences of this move will be a need to meet stakeholders' requirements and to document performance in doing so. Stakeholders will not commit resources to institutions that fail to meet their expectations or, at least, appear to fail because they do not provide evidence to the contrary. Employers will not enter contractual relationships with college that fail to meet their quality, price, and service requirements. Universities will not admit students from institutions that do not provide a solid basic skills foundation.