How To Increase Enrollment for Continuing Education Courses

For years a hot topic for all admissions directors, managers and marketing leaders at colleges and universities has been increasing enrollment and getting those admissions numbers up. But there has been less of a focus on how to do this successfully for continuing education. Whether you are wanting to increase enrollment for entire continuing education programs or just trying to get more students to sign up for individual continuing education courses, it’s a critical component to maintain a stable bottom line for your college or university.

In this article we’ll talk about a handful of ways that your institution can increase enrollment for continuing education in general, so that you can get the most out of your higher education marketing & communications effort in this area.

Why Are Colleges & Universities Struggling to Increase Enrollment in their Cont Ed Courses?

First let us just note that we understand it’s more difficult than ever to get admissions & enrollment numbers up. There are a number of reasons for this, but two of the most prominent are due to a much higher level of competing schools in the market and the fact that many schools are not marketing their continuing education courses at all.

The good news is that an easy fix to this is simply to market your continuing education programs to get enrollment numbers up. That alone puts you ahead of the competition and is guaranteed to lift your numbers. By how much will enrollment go up? Well that depends on how successfully you market your programs and courses. 

That leads us into our next topic which are the different ways that you can increase CE enrollment through marketing.

Top 5 Ways to Increase Continuing Ed Course Enrollment

So we’ve already established that simply marketing your continuing education courses and programs will provide a lift in admissions, but to get the best return on your continuing education marketing investment you’ll need to employ strategies that are more likely to generate higher enrollment.  We’ve listed the top 5 strategies to increasing continuing education enrollment below.

1. Partner With Businesses That Require Employees to Obtain Continuing Education Credits

Many businesses need their employees to continue their education to maintain individual licensure or to qualify for certain grants, projects or funding they receive. Every market, industry and business is different so you’ll need to reach out and find out what their specific needs are, but once you’re in, this becomes a feeder for new enrollment.

A great way of getting the attention of the HR professionals at these companies to host an event where you can provide them with literature and content on how your programs work, what they cost, etc.

Or you can simply send them packets directly to their office, which will allow them to read up and engage with you on their own time.

2. Attend Job Fairs or Host Professional Development Fairs

Job fairs are great because you’ll find many job seekers who are already employed that are looking for more income and higher salaries. The great news is that continuing education courses provide them with those opportunities whether it’s at the company they currently work for or more qualifications for a job that they want outside of their current workplace.

You can also host a fair of your own solely focused on those who are employed but want to do more professionally.

In either case you need to look good, have something to attract them to you and things to give them that they’ll use or remember you by.

This means having standout quality trade show elements at your booth like banners and flags, you’ll want promo items such as water bottles, bags or other fun thing, additionally you’ll want to have nice collateral that stands out from the others at the fair.

3. Collaborate With Professional Development Organizations

Working with other groups who are focused on professional development will give you a direct line to the most qualified students who you want to enroll in your professional development courses. These organizations vary depending on where you’re located and what segments you are pursuing, but the fact is they exist all over the place.

You may find you will need to provide value in some way whether it be commission or giving the organization access to your students or facilities.

But regardless of how you make the partnership happen you’ll need to make them aware and pitch them on the idea. In most cases you can simply use a direct mail strategy to get in front of them.

Once you are in partnership you’ll likely need to be the one who provides the materials for their customers to try and get them to enroll in your continuing education courses. Think folders, brochures, applications packets and more.

4. Use Messaging & Language That Speaks Directly to the Intended Audience

One of the mistakes we see colleges and universities make when promoting their continuing education programs is simply talking about the program itself and  not relating to who the course or program is actually for. You’ve got to do this to be successful at increasing enrollment in these courses.

Industry related pain points

Each industry has it’s own pain points that will resonate with the student candidates. For example, in some industries it’s simply a requirement and none of them really want to do it. So for those you could just talk about how easy, painless and quick it will be to take and get the course over with.

While with other industries it is just the opposite.

Industry related ROI

This is a powerful one because you’ll speak to a positive outcome that the student expects to get from enrolling in continuing education courses or programs. For example, many teachers will get an automatic raise in pay once they complete one of these courses. That’s a huge immediate benefit that not only affects their pay today, but also their retirement in the future!

5. Make it Easy to Enroll in Your Continuing Education Courses and Programs

And lastly we’re talking about making it simple to enroll. This applies to every segment, any situation, under all circumstances. If you can make enrolling in your CE courses and programs easy then you will get more applicants.

Some easy ways to make it easy to enroll are…

• Use short printed applications that require very little information
• Include QR codes on all printed material to get them to an online application portal
• Allow them to submit a resume without filling anything else out
• Make it easy to pick courses on paper and online so you can get them to the right courses fast

While we’re aware you could keep going on this, what we’ve shared here are some of the most successful strategies that if employed are guaranteed to increase enrollment in the continuing education courses and CE programs you offer.

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