Personnel Services

This literature review fecuses on4`the role of the coamunity college in meeting the needs of adults seeking assistance in mid-life career changes. Factops such as longer life spans,.better, health', increased leisure time, and greater emphasis upon the quality of lif6 increase the need for mid-life vocational counseling, leisure counseling programs, widow/widowers counseling, and pre-retirement workshops, as well as, the need for availability of lifelong educational opportunities. Family, job, and societal pressures can be seen to intexact.and produce four career patterns: routire (absence of career change), self-determined (career.change because of &Aire rather than necessity) , situationally determined (change brought about, by outside pressures), and self-directed accommodation Ichange influ'enced by environmental pressures but shaped by individual choice). An assessment of te"career pattern involved is ore of the first steps in finding a second career, ard one in which community college counseling programs should play a part. The effective accomplishment.of the educatiohal and counseling goals cf a college requires the provision of services that meet the special needs and abilitiesof adult students, the organization of services into a,pattern that is compatible with the character of the college, and the administration of services in ways that are mutually supportive. (A bibliography is included.) (ER) Reproductions supplied by RIDES are the beSt that ca from the original document. to mad