Do credential programs matter to nontraditional age students? Factors influencing adult participation in postsecondary education

In recent decades, growth in postsecondary education has been due in part to increased numbers of adult learners. Since the end of the Cold War, forces such as economic globalization, internet access, and the information explosion are changing the educational landscape. This study focuses on factors influencing adult postsecondary participation in credential programs; however, to the extent that significant numbers of adult participants in postsecondary educational programs for a credential are also in the labor force, employed either part-time or full-time, the economic and social environment cannot be ignored. In contemporary society, working adults must master new types of literacy skills on an ongoing basis. By including distance education and variables related to literacy and lifelong learning as possible indicators of information literacy, the design of this research recognizes the information technology (IT) infrastructure as well as the sociocultural context. The 1999 National Household Education Survey (NHES) Adult Education Interview data source (AE-NHES:1999) includes adults who participated in credential programs as well as those who did not, all of whom were making their career choice decisions in the early years of public Internet availability.; Several analysis techniques are employed. The descriptive analysis examines bivariate relationships among key independent variables representing the characteristics and motivations of adult participants in postsecondary credential programs, and compares these with the characteristics and motivations of participants in work-related courses not leading to a credential. Through multinomial logistic (MNL) regression analysis, this study finds age, prior educational attainment, and reason for postsecondary participation to be significant factors for all college/university degree outcomes. Gender, marital status, household income, and household size significantly predict participation in vocational/technical programs. Females were found to be about one-half as likely as males to be participants in a credential program. Overall, the odds of being a credential program participant decrease with age, and with increasing annual household income.; The study concludes that work-related goals are important to nontraditional age (adult) students, and that younger adults consider Bachelor's, Master's and Doctorate/Professional degree credential programs to be more valuable than Associate's degree and vocational/technical credential programs. Institutional and public policy implications are discussed.