Twentieth International Conference on Diversity in Organizations, Communities & Nations

Abstract

Even since the thirty-third President of the United States Harry Truman stated in his 1947’s commission report that public two-year colleges should expand responsibilities to benefit local communities’ educational needs, many city colleges - mostly public junior colleges have included adult education as part of their program offerings. Adult education generally cover general education development (GED) programs and English as Second Language (ESL), often serves underrepresented population who live in socially economically vulnerable conditions. City colleges possess many unique advantages that can benefit local education attainment and bring opportunities for economic development. Their convenient locations and low cost associate degree programs along with certificate vocational training programs make city colleges’ education not only assessable and affordable but labor market favorable. These characters give city colleges a great potential to develop programs that may bring benefits to adult education programs having students with diverse cultural and socioeconomic background. This study focuses on how a metropolitan area’s city college can help adult GED students and ESL students to advance their opportunities in education and employment in a culturally diverse urban environment through the college’s health science career pathway programs. The study compares GED and ESL programs’ student population with the metropolitan area’s demographic characters, reveal differences and similarities in employment status, career intention and learning obstacles between the two types of programs’ students. We believe this paper will help us better understand today’s diverse population and demonstrate how a city college can support adult education programs to meet diverse student needs.