Michigan’s adult learners are motivated, experienced, and ready to return to college. But motivation alone does not guarantee completion.
New insights from the Michigan Reconnect Applicant Survey show that while thousands of adults are eager to pursue education through Reconnect, many are navigating uncertainty around transfer pathways, financial planning, course flexibility, and basic needs supports. These challenges do not reflect a lack of commitment. Rather, they reveal systems that are still catching up to the realities of adult learners’ lives.
Reconnect has opened the door. The next step is ensuring that adult learners can move through that door – and all the way to a credential that supports long-term mobility.
What the Reconnect Survey Tells Us
Between August 2024 and April 2025, more than 9,400 Michigan Reconnect applicants shared information about their backgrounds, goals, and support needs. Their responses paint a consistent picture.
Most applicants are not new to work or education. Over half have some prior college experience without a credential, and nearly two-thirds report six or more years in the workforce. Many already hold industry credentials, certifications, or military training. These learners bring substantial experience with them – but too often, they are unsure whether that experience will count.
Applicants are also looking beyond short-term goals. Nearly three-quarters are open to eventually earning a bachelor’s degree, yet many report uncertainty about transfer pathways, costs beyond Reconnect, and how long completion might take. For adult learners balancing work, caregiving, and financial responsibilities, that uncertainty can become a barrier.
Flexibility is another recurring theme. The majority of respondents indicate that they will need to balance work – including full time work – with school and show strong preferences for online, hybrid, evening, weekend, and accelerated formats. Traditional schedules simply do not align with their lives.
Finally, the survey underscores the reality that adult learners are managing competing priorities. Housing insecurity, food insecurity, mental and physical health challenges, and caregiving responsibilities frequently overlap. Nearly one-third of respondents reported two or more basic needs challenges at the same time, reinforcing the need for coordinated, holistic support.
Reconnect Is a Starting Point – Not the Finish Line
Taken together, these findings send a clear message. Adult learners see Reconnect as a launching point. They are ready to build on prior experience, advance in their careers, and pursue additional education – but they need systems designed with those goals in mind.
Access to tuition-free community college is powerful. But without clear pathways, flexible learning options, recognition of prior learning, and integrated supports, many learners will struggle to persist.
That is where policy and institutional practice matter most.
Turning Insight Into Action
Building on the survey findings, the Michigan Center for Adult College Success developed a set of five policy recommendations focused on helping adult learners not only enroll, but complete credentials that lead to long-term opportunity.
First, Michigan must build seamless pathways to degrees and careers.
Adult learners need clear, transparent degree maps that connect certificates, associate degrees, and bachelor’s programs. Strengthening articulation agreements, aligning degree pathways statewide, and embedding early career-aligned advising can help learners understand both academic steps and financial implications from the start.
Second, prior learning must be recognized and rewarded.
With so many Reconnect applicants bringing years of work and training experience, Credit for Prior Learning is a critical lever for completion. Expanding CPL and Prior Learning Assessments, funding faculty and advisor training, and fully utilizing MiLEAP’s CPL reimbursement process can accelerate progress while validating what adult learners already know.
Third, learning models must reflect adult realities.
Requiring core programs to be available in online and hybrid formats, supporting modular and accelerated options, and clearly defining what “accelerated” means – often referring to eight-week course formats rather than traditional semesters – can help learners make informed decisions and stay on track.
Fourth, holistic student supports are essential – not optional.
Academic success is deeply connected to basic needs. Investing in adult-focused navigators, aligning campus efforts with statewide basic-needs strategies, and building coordinated referral systems can reduce the life barriers that too often derail motivated students.
Finally, financial and transfer navigation must improve.
Many applicants are navigating loans, repayment options, and transfer decisions without adequate guidance. Embedded financial coaching, transfer exploration during onboarding, and plain-language advising tools can help learners plan confidently and avoid unnecessary debt or delay.
Building a Stronger Talent Pipeline
Michigan Reconnect has already transformed access to education for adult learners. The opportunity now is to transform outcomes.
By aligning policy, institutional practice, and student supports with what adult learners are telling us, Michigan can ensure that Reconnect leads not just to enrollment – but to completion, mobility, and a stronger statewide talent pipeline.
To learn more about the resources MCACS offers and our ongoing work to support adult learner success, let’s talk! Email us at thecenter@talentfirst.net, or join us during our virtual drop-in office hours.
