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According to Statistics Canada, students aged 20 years and older accounted for just over 65 per cent of full- and part-time enrolments in the country’s colleges for the 2014-2015 school year.Getty Images/iStockphoto

Tiffany Fagan takes two vacation days each week from her full-time job to teach toddlers at a pre-school near her home in Arthur, Ont.

The teaching work is part of Ms. Fagan's early childhood education (ECE) studies at Durham College, where she enrolled two years ago through the school's continuing education department.

"One of the requirements for my current job is to have ECE," says Ms. Fagan, who works as an inclusion facilitator and co-ordinator at the Canadian Mental Health Association's office in Guelph, southwest of Toronto. "That's how I ended up back in school."

Ms. Fagan is among the growing group of Canadians pursuing postsecondary studies years after they have left high school. According to Statistics Canada, students aged 20 years and older accounted for just over 65 per cent of full- and part-time enrolments in the country's colleges for the 2014-2015 school year.

Among these older students, the 25- to 30-year-old age group saw the largest growth in college enrolments in the past decade, increasing to about 104,000 in the 2014-2015 school year from just close to 70,000 in 2004-2005.

Debbie Johnston, dean of the School of Continuing Education at Durham College in Oshawa, Ont., says she continues to see evidence of this trend on campus.

"Without question, we're seeing an increasing number of mature students," she says. "This has helped to shape our strategy in terms of our offerings and how we deliver our learning."

Research this year at Durham found that mature students want programs and courses that are "focused, pragmatic, convenient and tied directly to what employers want," says Ms. Johnston.

To meet the needs of these older students, Durham has intensified its focus on professional development programs. This fall, for instance, the school launched a series of online courses that help develop in-demand professional know-how such as negotiation skills, handling conflict, stress management and presentation skills, says Ms. Johnston.

"We're working with employers and leaders in various industries to create new offerings that really meet their needs," says Ms. Johnston. "For example, we worked with a group of licensed medical cannabis producers who told us they are keen to hire, but want people who have a contextual understanding of their industry.

"The result of this work is a weekend course called Medical Cannabis Fundamentals for Business Professionals."

Jodi Abbott, president and chief executive officer of NorQuest College in Edmonton, Alta., says it is particularly important to older students that schools tie classroom education to practical work-force training. This is why most programs at her school include work placement, she says.

NorQuest also offers counselling services for older students looking to switch careers, she says.

"What we have learned is that our students are very clear in their goals and they want to have that line of sight to employment," says Ms. Abbott. "This is especially the case with mature students."

Older students are hitting the textbooks again for various reasons that range from a need to upgrade their skills in the hope of advancing their careers, to a deeply entrenched desire to keep learning, regardless of their age, says Ms. Abbott.

As they return to the classroom after years in the work force or at home raising a family, many of these students run into back-to-school challenges, she adds.

"For many, the challenge often is 'How do I manage my job and school and family?'" says Ms. Abbott. "At the same time, they're having to learn how to study again and how to navigate postsecondary environments, which can be a bit intimidating and complex."

Like many other colleges and universities in the country, NorQuest offers a number of student support services that range from tutorial help and campus navigators to wellness teams that include psychologists and social workers. These services, which are available to everyone enrolled at NorQuest, can be especially helpful for older students, says Ms. Abbott.

Because many NorQuest students are new to Canada, the school also offers English language instruction courses. The mean age for this federally funded program is 35 years old, adds Ms. Abbott.

Technology has been a boon for older students, says Kathleen Bazkur, dean of Media, Business, Arts and Design and Continuing Education, at Loyalist College in Belleville, Ont.

Today, says Ms. Bazkur, the majority of continuing education courses at Loyalist are delivered online – a big plus for students juggling school, work and family responsibilities.

But technology can also be intimidating to some older students. Loyalist offers a hand through its computer labs, says Ms. Bazkur.

"We don't always assume that students come with knowledge of technology, so we offer support for both hardware and software," she says.

Many students who go back to school later in life already have work experience or previous education that could be counted as credits toward a college program, notes Ms. Johnston at Durham College. For older students who want to lessen their school work load, she advises applying for "prior learning assessment and recognition" – or PLAR for short – which gives students a chance to get academic credits for skills and knowledge they gained from work or past schooling.

Ms. Fagan applied for PLAR, and was able to transfer four credits from her studies more than 10 years ago at Conestoga College to Durham College. Today, she says she is on track to get her ECE diploma by April, 2018.

"Going back to school has been a big challenge for me – I had to find a way to fit it into my life," she says. "My advice to those who are thinking of doing the same thing? Have confidence in your ability because our life skills give us much more than we give ourselves credit for, and don't be afraid to ask for help – colleges and universities are really good at providing support for mature students."

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