Continuing Education & Lifelong Learning
Memphis Public Libraries
Innovation Synopsis
The purpose of MPL’s Continuing Education & Lifelong Learning series is to provide the people of Memphis with opportunities to enhance their lives and grow in the areas of work, education, and personal growth in various areas of their lives by offering four weeks of intensive study in those areas.
Subjects are included but not limited to Spanish, Public Speaking, Critical Thinking, Sign Language, and Graphic design.
Years ago, the University of Memphis offered continuing education courses as did Southwest Tennessee Community College. These courses were offered for pay on their campus at various times. The University of Memphis has dropped its offering, and Southwest Tennessee Community College limited theirs.
We are hoping to fill the void that remains.
Challenge/Opportunity
The biggest challenges are making people aware these opportunities exist. We've met that head-on with social media, on our own website, and getting the word out through traditional media, like television. Another challenge is getting people to realize because the courses are free they are not of low quality. We've addressed that by partnering with some of the best and most passionate instructors in the city.
Key Elements of Innovation
They key is the partnerships. Working with people who want the best for this city and want to see the citizens have opportunities to help break the cycle of poverty and or improve their lives and doing it at no cost to our customers.
Also engaging our customers to get their thoughts regarding what types of classes they want.
Achieved Outcomes
Three of the seven of our strategic goals as an organization are to enhance equitable access, promote workforce development, and advance our role as a community anchor. Continuing Education & Lifelong Learning provides us with an opportunity to address all three.
A goal for the program itself is to increase the number of offerings. We started with 12 classes and have gotten up to 20 within 3 seasons of the classes.
The demand grew so much from our Fall and Spring sessions we added a Summer session.
We also use surveys to address the community's needs for classes and the best times to offer them. We've been able to offer sessions in the mornings, afternoons, and evenings, as well as on weekends and online.
