Western Piedmont launches effort to re-enroll adults who left college unfinished

Thousands of adults across Western North Carolina started college but never finished — and now a new push at Western Piedmont Community College is trying to bring back approximately 1,000 locals for better jobs and a second shot at a degree.

The NC Reconnect program targets “stop-outs,” or former students who left school before earning a degree, and works to bring them back to the classroom. Backed by the John M. Belk Endowment, the program is beginning its sixth cohort.

According to WPCC officials, they’ve identified about 1,000 local adult learners who did not complete an enrolled program at WPCC, or a subsequent transfer college or university, since 2020.

The initiative isn’t just about reconnecting adults with former pathways, the target is to get former students on track for their current goals.

“Our community colleges are the emergency room of life for so many people,” Belk Endowment Vice President Mike Krause said during a presentation to WPCC staff. “They show up here, they need help. They need help getting a better job, and that’s not abstract.”

The need not only arose for students looking to improve their lives, but also for colleges hoping to keep their doors open. With traditional students replenishing at lower rates than ever, a crisis was on the horizon for local higher education.

“Not to be doom and gloom, but (birth rates) are never coming back,” Krause said, explaining that he spoke with a demographer not long ago, and the news wasn’t looking pretty.

“If the birth rate was going to rebound to meaningfully affect the next 30 years, it had to do it five years ago,” he said. “Turns out there was a global pandemic and the economy got soft and the birth rates stayed low.”

HOW IT WORKS

The campus provides the contact information of those who stopped pursuing higher education after enrollment.

Between April and May, four Belk Endowment employees assigned to the college conduct an outreach campaign, cold-contacting stop-outs and inviting them to return to the school to finish a degree.

Between April and August, the NC Reconnect program provides re-enrollment coaching, bypassing the bureaucratic hurdles present in the past.

“They don’t need a lot,” Krause said. “If we can just make it the slightest bit less frictional, they want to come back.”

Between cohorts one through five, the campaign reached out to nearly 48,000 students, with a 27% contact rate and a 24% enrollment among those contacted.

That translated to about 2,900 learners re-enrolled, generating $4.9 million in additional tuition across 24 community colleges.

Emily Banks, director of marketing at WPCC, explained that WPCC will receive the paid marketing campaign and assistance with outreach as well as a grant-funded project to remove barriers for adult learners.

“WPCC is in the process now of developing that project,” she said. “Over the next year we may receive up to $125,000.”

CHECK THE NUMBERS

In the past five years at WPCC, the largest portion of enrolled students were between the ages of 25 and 44, increasing from 32% in 2020-21 to 38% as of the 2024-25 school year.

Traditional students, ages 18-24, have declined, dropping from 35% in 2020-21 to 27% in 2024-25.

Curriculum enrollment continues to be disproportionately female-heavy, with only 38% of students enrolled being men. In workforce continuing education, however, the trend is almost completely reversed, with 35% of enrolled students being female.

The workforce continuing education contains the highest number of students enrolled across all curriculum pathways.

According to cohort No. 5’s numbers, returning students gravitated toward earning their commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs), health care, welding, and other trade certifications such as construction.

Banks said the most popular workforce continuing education pathways at WPCC are the six- or 13-week nurse aide program, which prepares learners to enter the workforce quickly; the two-year nursing degree where students pursue nursing, medical laboratory technology, and medical assisting skills; and the fire, rescue, and emergency medical services programs.

WHAT OTHER COLLEGES DID

Colleges are given jurisdiction over how they use and distribute the funds received from the endowment.

Edgecombe Community College opted to support students out of SAP (Satisfactory Academic Progress) compliance.

When students receive financial aid, general rules such as minimum GPAs, specific percentages of completed coursework, and timely completion determines the eligibility for continued funding.

Pitt Community College, in Winterville, purchased cubicles and computers to develop a learning resource center for adults. James Sprunt Community College in Kenansville, redeveloped their enrollment process to take 60 minutes or less and provided financial incentives to return.

“If you can get an adult learner in North Carolina community colleges … past the first four weeks,” Krause said, “they succeed at a higher rate than a traditional student.”

The challenge now is not convincing adults they need a better job. It’s convincing them that going back to college is still possible — and worth it.