| Capitalism and education can appear like unlikely friends at first, yet for-profit educational ventures continue to grow in size and revenue year after year in the United States. How can the government-controlled (and partially funded) educational institutions capitalize upon the opportunity without modifying the mission and vision of the institution? One method used for the past century has been a subset of continuing education programs; non-credit, short-course, professional development offerings which can be profitable for the institution, while not interfering or distracting from the central mission of the degree-granting, researched-focused institutions.;This is a case study of the program creation, issues surrounding the program, and possible formulas for success that could be emulated in similar communities. Current continuing education programs in public universities have differing formats for organizational structure, leadership, financial support and objectives, and programmatic offerings, yet maintain a common set of goals for academic service to the community through credit and non-credit courses. A common set of 14 themes within continuing education programs were located through review of the literature, which were then distilled to nine aspects common within continuing education programs. From the nine aspects an organizational model, or framework, of the four elements for a successful continuing education program were discussed. The framework is replicable for other continuing education leaders. |
