Momentum grows for trading life, job experience for academic credit
SEATTLE—Laid off at the start of the recession as marketing director for a regional homebuilder, Leah Schedin quickly realized she lacked something essential for a new job: a university degree.
Schedin had completed courses here and there at a community college, but never enough for a bachelor’s degree. Without one, she found, her 18 years of experience didn’t matter.
“These days, you’re applying online, and you’re filtered out as soon as you get to the question about whether you have a degree,” said the 46-year-old married mother of a teenage daughter.
Leah Schedin went back to school at the age of 46 after being laid off as a marketing director from a Seattle-area home builder. (Kevin P. Casey/MCT)
So Schedin put her talents to work finding a university where she could get academic credit for her work experience. She found one: City University of Seattle, a private, nonprofit institution that’s at the vanguard of a movement catering to the growing numbers of adult learners and military veterans changing careers in worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. And at the end of next semester, she’ll head back into the churning job market with a four-year degree in marketing after just 18 months.
Universities and colleges are being pressed to increase