West Valley, Mission community colleges to grow older adult curriculum

Local community colleges are recruiting a different type of senior: older adults.

The Saratoga Area Senior Coordinating Council (SASCC) partnered with the West Valley-Mission Community College District to launch a community survey that will inform curriculum changes catered specifically to seniors. The survey is designed to help grow the district’s slowly declining community college population.

Chancellor Brad Davis said enrollment is down at both West Valley College in Saratoga and Mission College in Santa Clara, and tapping into programming and curriculum for seniors can not only support the schools but engage more of the community.

“Community colleges across California have seen almost a 10% decrease across the board in community college students,” Davis said. “Many of us are taking a fresh perspective on how we can serve the population we have.”

Edsource reported that California community college enrollment reached a 30-year low in 2022.

Davis said elementary, middle and high school student bodies have been on a steady decline across the Bay Area over the past few years. Families are moving out of the area, having fewer kids or not moving to the area in the first place.

Tylor Taylor, SASCC’s executive director, said the survey will inform an action plan to build more programs for seniors. The overall approach is to increase learning opportunities for older adults and create new certificate programs to boost employment opportunities for seniors.

Older adults, Taylor said, are having to work longer because of the high cost of living in the West Valley.

West Valley College’s current adult program is a non-credited set of classes that older adults can take at random. The new classes would include a curated track of courses that help seniors earn certificates or build new career skills.

West Valley-Mission is the first community college district to be designated “age friendly” by the World Health Organization for showing a commitment to incorporating people of all ages into the community. The district worked with SASCC to achieve that designation in 2018.

Nearly 3,000 Saratoga residents over age 60 will be mailed the survey the first week of May, before surveys are rolled out in Santa Clara later this year.

SASCC has surveyed seniors before, Taylor said. In 2016, the organization polled Saratoga seniors to figure out what sort of support services they needed. Based on those results, SASCC created RYDE, a transportation service for seniors.