By Rob Moritz
Arkansas news Bureau
NORTH LITTLE ROCK — A new program beginning this fall will allow some older students attending Arkansas’ two-year colleges to receive credit for their life experiences.
Ed Franklin, executive director of the Arkansas Association of Two-Year Colleges announced today that Chicago-based Council for Adult and Experiential Learning will offer a six-week evaluation and assessment class to students who are interested to see if their life experiences can be turned into college credit.
CAEL currently offers similar programs to more than 80 colleges in all 50 states, said Mark Campbell, vice president of LearningCounts.org, the online portal where students take the six-week assessment and evaluation class.
“There are over 1,800 schools that routinely and regularly receive credit recommendations, which is how we are transcripting the credit,” he said. “We also have a number of national corporate participants, like Starbucks Corp. and Brunswick Corp., and we’ll be announcing some other national corporate partnerships also.”
LearningCounts.org helps adults accelerate their degree completion “in an assessable and affordable manner that meets their needs,” Campbell said during a news conference at Pulaski Technical College in North Little Rock.
Franklin said the new program will go a long way in helping the state meet the governor’s goal of doubling the number of college graduates in Arkansas by 2025.
Also during the news conference, Ed Drilling, president of AT&T Arkansas, announced his company was giving a $24,750 grant to the Association of Two-Year Colleges to establish a scholarship program to assist 66 students in paying for the course, which costs about $700.
Franklin said the money will be divided equally among the state’s two-year colleges and each institution will offer three scholarships to students, based on need.
“These nontraditional students have relevant life and work experience that could translate into college credit, which will help[ them graduate more quickly,” he said.
Franklin told reporters later that any student wishing to apply for the scholarship can do so at the two-year college they are attending.
Campbell said students do not have to be affiliated with any of the state’s two-year schools can go online to LearningCounts.org.
