Community colleges serve a significant portion of the working age adult population. These individuals could be seeking new careers, advances in their current career, or just specific skills needed to maintain or advance in their job. Often, these working adult students attend part-time, during evening and weekend hours, or through distance education as they balance work, family and college.

Establishing a target for this population is somewhat arbitrary but for planning purposes, the goal is to increase the participation rate from the current 2.25% of adults between the ages of 25 to 44 to 4%. The targets are based on the population statistics in the service areas of the colleges.