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A
Program Helps Workers
50 and Older Re-enter Workforce
fter 15 years with the same employer, Lowanda Spigner
found herself unemployed and facing the possibility of
homelessness.
A referral from a case manager led Spigner to BACK TO WORK 50+,
a national skills-training program administered by the AARP Founda-
tion that helps workers 50 years and older re-enter the workforce.
By Tabitha Whissemore
“It’s all about rebuilding their confidence.
It’s a new belief in themselves.”
—Lisa Bly, assistant dean of corporate, community,
and continuing education, Moraine Valley Community College
shironosov/Thinkstock
Spigner attended an information ses-
sion on the campus of Moraine Valley
Community College (MVCC), in Illinois,
and later enrolled in an intensive
four-week training program featuring
courses taught by local employers. Ad-
ministrators say the program, which fo-
cuses on opportunities for women and
the long-term unemployed, is intended
to accomplish two primary goals: to
give older professionals the skills and
the confidence needed to compete for
jobs in an increasingly competitive
economy and to connect participants
with potential employers who might
hire them down the road.
Participants are coached on how to
market themselves to employers, in-
cluding writing resumes and interview-
ing. They also learn tips for networking
and job-search skills. The coursework
is aligned with information from the
AARP Foundation’s “7 Smart Strategies
for 50+ Jobseekers” guide.
As part of the program, Spigner
also participated in home health care
training at MVCC. At a hiring event
at the conclusion of the program, she
received two job offers and now works
as a program specialist for UCP Seguin
of Greater Chicago.
“On the day of the job fair, I was
literally hungry and ready to become
employed,” Spigner says of her experi-
ence with the program.
Addressing a Need
Spigner isn’t alone: Nationwide, more
than 3 million workers 50 and older are
unemployed.
Since it launched in 2013, Back to
Work 50+ has provided information
and resources to help more than 5,000
unemployed workers find meaningful
employment. The program began as a
demonstration project at the Arapahoe/
Douglas Works, a workforce center in
Colorado, and is now up and running
on 15 community college campuses
nationwide.
Students interested in receiving
assistance through the program are di-
rected to a hotline administered by the
AARP Foundation. The calls are used
to evaluate the type of support that is
needed and to connect students with a
participating community college in the
network.
As part of an ongoing collaboration
with the American Association of
Community Colleges (AACC), BACK
TO WORK 50+ participants also gain
access to a virtual career-exploration
tool, part of AACC’s Virtual Career
Network (VCN). The tool allows us-
ers to assess their interests in the job
market, learn about high-growth oc-
cupations, choose a target occupation,
locate additional education or training
programs, and work toward earning
industry-recognized credentials and li-
censes. (For more on VCN, see page 13.)

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...news & analysis
Confidence Boost
Like Spigner, many BACK TO WORK
50+ students enter the program with
a strong skill set and an abundance of
professional experience, explains Lisa
Bly, the assistant dean of corporate,
community, and continuing education
and the BACK TO WORK 50+ project
director at MVCC. What these learn-
ers lack, more often than not, is the
certainty that they can succeed. Many of
these students have lost their jobs, some
have been unemployed for months, and
several have had to stand by and watch
as younger job candidates were awarded
positions for which the 50-plus workers
were equally, if not more, qualified.
“It’s all about rebuilding their confi-
dence. It’s a new belief in themselves,”
Bly says.
In addition to the training they
receive, candidates get to show off their
employability duringback to a job fair
specifically for BACK TO WORK 50+
students.
“They really have to sell themselves
for open positions, and that’s where the
rubber meets the road,” Bly says.
“It has been a long time since I have
had a job with benefits, and I was bust-
ing at the seams with excitement,”
Spigner says of her experience.
“We are very proud that a collabora-
tion between Moraine Valley Com-
munity College and AARP Foundation
helped Lowanda Spigner find her new
job,” says Emily Allen, vice president for
income at the AARP Foundation. “Too
many older adult women face similar
challenges in securing economic op-
portunity. BACK TO WORK 50+ works
with colleges across the country to offer
50-plus women the opportunities and
supports they need to get ahead, and to
decrease the number of women who slip
into poverty later in life.”
Over the next two years, the AARP
Foundation plans to invest more than $2
million in the BACK TO WORK 50+ pro-
gram. In addition to collaborating with
AACC, the program is supported by the
Walmart Foundation and has received a
Social Innovation Fund grant from the
Corporation for National and Commu-
nity Service.
By Tabitha Whissemore
As advanced manufacturing systems be-
come increasingly sophisticated, sustain-
ing a skilled workforce is a challenge.
Despite an increase in technical-skills
jobs, many employers struggle to consis-
tently identify employees with the skills
needed to succeed in the workforce.
“It’s a skills-match problem,” says Bill
Boswell, senior director of partner strat-
egy at Siemens PLM Software. The tech-
nology company has donated millions
of dollars’ worth of product lifecycle
management (PLM) software to com-
munity colleges to help students acquire
hands-on experience with the tools likely
to be encountered in the workplace.
“Half of all the STEM [science, tech-
nology, engineering, and mathematics]
jobs out there are available without a
four-year degree. And they’re good-
paying jobs,” says Boswell.
Meaningful Pathways
At Quinsigamond Community College
(QCC), in Massachusetts, a joint part-
nership between the college, a group of
manufacturing companies, inlcuding
Siemens, and MassMEP, a statewide
manufacturing initiative, led to the cre-
ation of career pathways and stackable
credentials for specific manufacturing
programs. Students who enroll in these
programs can access progressively com-
plex training as they graduate, enter the
workforce, and advance their careers.
To build these credentials, QCC col-
laborates with employers to determine
training needs and then designs pro-
grams that teach specific skills. In some
cases, training programs start as early
as high school and extend to four-year
colleges with the help of special articula-
tion agreements.
MassMEP and QCC’s stackable
credential program is being used as a
model for statewide expansion.
Virginia’s Thomas Nelson Community
College—another Siemens partner—
works with industry partners and the in-
cumbent workforce to provide manufac-
turing training to up to 2,600 noncredit
students and their instructors.
Together, Boswell says, these col-
leges and their industry and education
partners are changing the perception of
traditional manufacturing. These jobs
used to be viewed as “dark, dirty, and
dangerous,” Boswell says. But that’s no
longer the case. The technical-skills jobs
available in the workforce today are
knowledge-based and require sophisti-
cated thinkers.
Spread the Word
Looking for more information on the
power of stackable credentials? This
January, the American Association of
Community Colleges will host a half-
day workshop at its annual Workforce
Development Institute.
The workshop will take an in-depth
look at career-pathways programs and
the use of stackable credentials.
The program will give special atten-
tion to the IT sector, with a glimpse at
advanced manufacturing and programs
that have or are building programs in
both software and hardware design. For
more information, email Todd Cohen at
tcohen@aacc.nche.edu.
Siemens Shines
A Spotlight on
Stackable Credentials
“Half of all the STEM jobs out
there are available without a
four-year degree.”
—Bill Boswell, senior director of partner strategy,
Siemens PLM Software