Colleges and universities are about to experience the landfall of a long-brewing demographic storm, commonly referred to in higher ed as “the enrollment cliff.” As highlighted in a recent Chronicle of Higher Education video, this decline in the traditional college-aged population presents unique challenges that will require institutions to rethink how they attract and serve students in the decades ahead.
The Chronicle highlights at least three ways institutions can act now to prepare for the road ahead:
Attract and serve non-traditional students (e.g. working adults)
Align programs to workforce needs
Adapt to local demographic trends that matter for your region
In this article, we’ll share how Lightcast data helps you put these ideas into action to build a resilient future for your institution, and your students. For a personalized walkthrough of these solutions, contact us.
Attract and serve non-traditional students
With the traditional-aged student population projected to decline, colleges and universities are looking to broaden their focus to include adult learners, career changers, and other non-traditional students. These learners prioritize efficient pathways to career change or advancement, including upskilling or reskilling. Here are a few ways to attract and engage these career-focused prospects:
Enable Career-First Academic Exploration: Some working adults may be ready for a change, but unsure about which career pathways are most realistic for them, let alone how to get there. By deploying Career Coach, you can help prospective students catalog their existing skills – based on prior education and work experience – and receive recommendations for careers that are a good fit for them. Career Coach also links local labor market data (including job openings, wages, necessary skills, and more) directly to relevant programs at your institution, making it easy for adult learners to clarify their career goals, and start their academic journey.
Embed career data on program pages - Lightcast data can be easily embedded directly into academic program pages, displaying relevant salary, employer, and job title insights right alongside course and degree information on your website. This data can also be customized to blend seamlessly with your brand identity, helping prospects explore program offerings and related career opportunities all in one integrated experience.
Promote alumni career success - Nothing demonstrates value like alumni success. Using Alumni Pathways, your institution can gather data on the career outcomes of graduates from each of your academic programs. Sharing top employers, job titles, and estimated wages of your past students can help prospective students see the relevance and impact of your academic offerings for their career goals.
Align programs to workforce needs
As higher ed becomes more competitive, it’s more important than ever to ensure programs are built to deliver the value, in terms of career success and mobility, that most learners – both traditional and non-traditional – are looking for. Here’s how Lightcast can help:
Track Market Demand: Lightcast software uses cutting-edge taxonomies to help you track the specific skills and occupations that are in high demand or rapidly growing in your region. This insight is critical to validating program ideas, aligning offerings with workforce needs, and understanding where to invest in the years ahead (especially important when developing credentials to help adult learners adapt and pivot to evolving trends like AI, Cybersecurity, and green jobs).
Assess and Improve Alignment: It’s one thing to understand the market. It’s another to connect those market insights back to your courses, credentials, and programs. Tools like Skillabi make it easier than ever to track alignment – or misalignment – in real time, so you can efficiently adapt programs by ensuring they deliver the key skills students need in today’s labor market.
A Program Demand Gap Analysis report – prepared by Lightcast’s team of experienced economists and researchers – provides a bird’s eye view by analyzing the total supply vs. demand for educational programs in your region. The report provides actionable insight to help you ensure program decisions are aligned with local industry and workforce needs.Create and Market Innovative Credentials: Lightcast skills data is especially useful for developing innovative credentials that position both your institution and your students for success in the future of work. For example, see how Gies College of Business is using skill insights from Lightcast to develop and market new graduate certificates that serve working professionals in areas like financial management, digital marketing, and entrepreneurship.
Understand and adapt to local demographic trends
Demographic changes are the source of the enrollment cliff, and understanding those shifts is essential to responding effectively. The key is looking beyond national trends to pinpoint local and regional impacts. Here’s how Lightcast can help.
Track regional demographics - Lightcast tools make it easy to track key demographic metrics – including age cohorts, diversity breakdowns, and income levels – so you can anticipate enrollment challenges and respond effectively in terms of both program offerings and recruitment strategies. Equipped with those insights, you’ll be better able to invest and grow strategically, ensuring your programs continue to serve as an effective talent pipeline for local businesses, and a gateway of opportunity for students.
Consider the industry perspective - Keep in mind that the “enrollment cliff” for educators is part of a larger “people shortage” for the economy as a whole. In the free Lightcast report, Changing Winds, we unpack more of what these demographic trends mean for higher education while placing them in their larger labor market context.
Alumni data can help you identify employers where your institution is already contributing to the talent pipeline, which can help facilitate the establishment of earn-and-learn partnerships and internship programs – creating a win-win-win for institutions, employers, and students who gain hands-on experience while still enrolled.Take an ecosystem approach - The enrollment cliff (and related talent shortage) can’t be solved by any one sector alone. Higher education, employers, and the public sector should come together with a coordinated strategy that builds resilience and unlocks opportunity for all. Reliable data can serve as a foundation for collaboration, providing a common language and shared basis for decision making.
In Detroit for example, the regional chamber of commerce, local employers, and the community college system all worked together to address the skill needs of the region’s automotive sector. And some states are using Lightcast data to identify credential gaps that can be addressed by education providers. These kinds of data-driven, coordinated strategies serve as a blueprint for other regions facing similar challenges.
Adapting with confidence
The enrollment cliff isn’t just a challenge—it’s a call to action for higher education leaders to rethink who they serve and how. By leveraging real-time labor market and demographic data, your institution can build stronger connections between education and employment, align programs with workforce needs, and engage a broader range of learners. Lightcast is here to help you make that shift with confidence.
