COMPETE LA - There's an estimated 653,000 Louisiana adults who have attended college or university and HAVE accumulated some college credit. But for one reason or another they never completed a degree. That's one in five adults in Louisiana. And typically most better-paying jobs often require a college degree.
There's a new program aimed at helping Louisiana adults complete their college degrees. Dr. Jim Henderson, is president of the University System of Louisiana, I caught up with him yesterday morning after a Bossier Chamber of Commerce Breakfast meeting, where he spoke about the program Compete Louisiana.
“We know that the college degree is the pathway to life and career success," explained Henderson. "We had to find a program that could come in and intervene, eliminate the barriers that prevent and adult, especially a working adult from coming back to college. That’s what Compete Louisiana does. It knocks down the barriers, the red-tape, the administrivia, and allows the student to focus on an education, getting that degree that’s going to give them a higher quality of life.”
Compete Louisiana is offered through the University of Louisiana System and is a basically a concierge type of service that pairs applicants with an academic coach who works with returning students to focus on the best path towards completing a degree program which could be completely online or traditional coursework or a combination of both.
“There’s a number of programs around the country that are around completion; you see Complete Florida or Complete Mississippi, and that’s fine. But completion is a means to an end, the end is a competitive advantage," Henderson said. "The end means that the student that gets the degree can compete in this new job market. It means that our employers that hire these students have a competitive advantage in the global marketplace. And so we thought that the competition really spoke to the end; it allows you, it empowers you to compete in an ever more competitive economy.”
Compete Louisiana is shepherded through the 9 institutions that make up the University of Louisiana System, but Henderson said that the program's focus is to take each individual students’ academic needs AND goals in consideration which could mean taking courses at other Louisiana academic institutions as well. Compete Louisiana does not add any extra costs to tuition and for more information, the website is CompeteLA.org.