Abstract:

Student retention in non-traditional management programs has recently been a concern for universities with adult learners. Management programs, especially those that are non-traditional are becoming a leading way for organizations and businesses to obtain high quality management skills and abilities that can be taught to professionals. The ability for adult learners to retain into continuing education programs is viable to the community, the businesses and organizations, and the university. The concepts learned are valuable such that the operations used in creating these programs needs of that value based on the specific outcomes for the program.

Continuing education programs need to adjust specific plans that market and enhance the features and benefits of the programs. Creating adjustments to existing programs will enhance the perspective of the student, giving them a positive field on the outcome of the general theme of the program. These changes are minimal but have very large external factors that help control the enrollment of students from the organization. In turn, this will increase the benefits received by the organization to help trigger represented effects to the university. The quality of these programs can be measured by the return on this investment as well as the overall outcome.

Benchmarking has the power to legitimize business goals based on high external operations instead of extracting from internal practices and past trends. With all external environments constantly changing, new focused ideas are needed for plans to successfully enable assets to conform new expectations to retain adult learners. The importance of this study is to create a better-rounded continuing education program by comparison to other well-known systems. These changes affect both the internal and external concepts given off by the program.

The importance of benchmarking can help increase retention in continuing educational programs with little to no massive makeovers. Benchmarking is one of the most powerful business practices tools that had been adapted into metrics of standardized process improvement practices. In higher education, this process will be flawless and overall create a management system that will help engage new options for adult learners in higher education.

Keywords:

Benchmarking, Business Programs, Quality Professionals, Continuing Education, Process Improvement.