--Establishing Competitive Capability

There are many areas in which individuals and groups demand (need) a continuing process of education to maintain currency in sets of skills or even sizable bodies of knowledge. Davis and Botkin in Monster Under the Bed refer to the term "employee education" as the fastest-growing learning segment in our society. Employee education focuses on learning for management and professionals, currency and productivity for service workers, and basic schooling for unskilled workers.

Davis and Botkin point to data which indicates that in corporate America in the early 1990's, the number of employees receiving budgeted training grew by nearly four million people. The average level of training received by each of these people (31.5 contact hours) amounted to the equivalent of nearly a quarter-million additional full-time college students. That would mean six new universities the size of the University of Florida to accommodate the demand. Such demand continues to increase. Baby Boomers are now in their most productive years. Furthermore, employers must undertake remedial training of workers ill-prepared by their public education to remain productive. Educational opportunities for the aging population also should be considered.

How can we meet such a demand?

ADEC-member institutions are already involved in many areas which demand and in some cases require ongoing employee education. Such areas offer a distinct competitive advantage for ADEC to build its reputation. Success breeds success and ADEC can demonstrate its ability to server the needs of clientele/customers in several areas. ADEC has provided support for developing training projects in such areas as certified crop advisor updates, food safety enhancement, pesticide applicator currency, technology application, improving parenting skills, nutrition education, health and resource management.

We must also realize that traditional campus based instruction will be unable to keep up with the demand. Indeed, the cost of building new infrastructure cannot be accommodated given today's funding constraints. Therefore, we must look to technology to enable us to fulfill the needs for proactive, ongoing adult education.