Supporting Adult Learners: How Community Colleges Can Deliver Wellness Training to Non-Traditional Students

Vector Solutions can help community colleges support adult learners with online wellness training they can complete on their own schedule. Working students, adult learners, and those enrolled part time need practical help with stress, mental well-being, and safety, yet many of them are on campus for only a few hours a week. Wellness programming built around daytime events and in-person workshops is not often designed for their schedules, so it often misses them.

Non-traditional students are not a small group at community colleges. Part-time students alone make up most of the student body. In fall 2024, about 3.1 million of the 4.5 million students enrolled in public two-year community colleges attended part-time, according to federal data compiled by the Community College Research Center (CCRC) at Teachers College, Columbia University. The American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) also reports that the average age of community college students is 27, not counting dual-enrolled students.

Below, we cover who non-traditional students are, which wellness topics matter most to them, and how student services and student success leaders can deliver short, online wellness training to every population they serve, including non-degree students.

Main Takeaways

• Cover the wellness topics that matter most for non-traditional students: mental well-being, stress management, financial wellness, substance misuse prevention, and more.
• Build training into steps students already complete, such as registration, orientation, or the start of a term, instead of sending a standalone optional request.
• Decide who owns wellness training for non-degree students and confirm with your compliance team which training programs apply to them.
• Assign courses by student population, so part-time, online-only, and continuing education cohorts each receive training that fits their schedules.
• Track completion by student population rather than campus-wide totals, so gaps among specific groups are easy to spot and follow up on.

Who Are Non-Traditional Students at Community Colleges?

Non-traditional students are learners whose lives do not fit the full-time, straight-from-high-school model. They work, raise children, return to school after time away, attend part-time, learn fully online, or enroll in noncredit programs, and at community colleges, they make up a large share of enrollment.

Noncredit learners add to that picture. According to AACC, headcount enrollment at community colleges reached 10.5 million in fall 2024, with 4.1 million of those students enrolled in noncredit programs.

These students experience well-being challenges in a different context than their peers at four-year institutions, a point we explored in Recognizing the Unique Characteristics of Community College Students. The table below breaks the population into the segments that student services teams most often need to plan for.

Why Traditional Wellness Programming Can Miss Adult Learners

Student wellness programs built around in-person events, daytime workshops, and residence hall programs depend on students being in a set place at a set time. Students who come to campus only for class or never come to campus at all can miss the prevention programming entirely.

A few common formats create the gap:

• Daytime scheduling: Workshops held during business hours conflict with work shifts.
• One-time events: A wellness fair or guest speaker reaches only the students who can attend that day.
• Physical location: Online-only and evening students may never pass the bulletin board or tabling station.
• Opt-in only: Optional programming depends on students finding it, which is hardest for students with the least free time.

Short, online, on-demand training closes that gap by going where the student already is. A student can complete a module on a phone during a lunch break or on a laptop at home after work, with no need to go to campus.

This approach also complements the services you already offer. A counseling center is essential, but it serves students who walk through the door. Online wellness training reaches students who never do, and it can point them to counseling, basic needs, and health services when they need support. For a broader look at why wellness matters for every student, see The Importance of Health and Wellness for College Students.

What Wellness Topics Matter Most for Non-Traditional Students?

Six topics form the core of a wellness training program for non-traditional students: mental well-being, stress and time management, financial wellness, substance misuse prevention, healthy relationships and sexual assault prevention, and campus safety. Here is what training on each topic should help students do.

1. Mental well-being. Student mental health training should help students practice self-care strategies, recognize when they or a peer may be in distress, and know how to find additional support on campus or in the community.
2. Stress and time management. Identify common stressors and their effects on health, build coping skills, and learn strategies to structure time, prioritize tasks, and keep a balanced schedule alongside work and family.
3. Financial wellness. Learn the basics of budgeting, saving, banking, credit cards, interest, and credit scores.
4. Substance misuse prevention. Understand the effects of alcohol, cannabis, and prescription drugs, recognize the signs of misuse, and know how to help a friend.
5. Healthy relationships and sexual assault prevention. Understand consent, recognize sexual harassment, relationship violence, and stalking, and build bystander intervention skills.
6. Campus safety. Review basic safety information, emergency procedures, and how to respond to an active assailant situation.

Vector Solutions offers online courses on each of these topics, including student wellness and safety training covering mental well-being, campus safety, and more.

How to Deliver Wellness Training for Students Balancing Work and Family

Assign short, mobile-friendly courses to each student population, connect them to steps students already complete, and track completion in one place. Use these steps to build your rollout.

1. Assign by student population. Build separate assignments for part-time, online-only, evening, and continuing education cohorts instead of relying on one campus-wide email.
2. Tie training to existing steps. Connect training to a process that students already complete, such as registration, orientation, or the start of a new term, rather than sending it as a standalone optional request.
3. Keep it focused. Choose courses that each cover a single topic so students can complete them in one sitting.
4. Send reminders on your schedule. Automated notifications and reminders can be set on a cadence that fits your institution, so staff are not chasing completions by hand.
5. Point students to real resources. Configure content pages with campus-specific information, such as how to reach the counseling center or basic needs office.
6. Track completion and reporting. Real-time dashboards show course completions and outstanding assignments, so you can see which populations need follow-up.

Including Non-Degree and Continuing Education Students

Non-degree students should have access to the same wellness and safety training as credit students, and the first step is deciding who owns that decision. With 4.1 million noncredit students at community colleges in fall 2024, according to AACC, this population is too large to exclude from campus-wide training.

Start by answering three questions with your team:

1. Who owns training for noncredit students? Clarify whether student services, the continuing education or workforce division, or a shared team is responsible for assigning it.
2. Are they included today? Check whether non-degree students currently receive the trainings assigned to credit students, or whether they fall outside those assignments.
3. Which trainings apply? Confirm with your compliance team which trainings are required for noncredit students. Where a training is not required, offering access still extends wellness support to students who might otherwise receive none.

Vector Solutions courses can be assigned to any student population, including part-time, online-only, and continuing education students. Courses are also SCORM-compliant, so you can deliver, manage, and report on training through your preferred LMS.

How Do You Know Wellness Training Is Reaching Adult Learners?

Measure completion by student population, not just campus-wide totals, and pair it with learner survey data. A high overall completion rate can hide a low rate among part-time or continuing education students.

Track these signals:

• Completion by segment. Compare completion rates for part-time, online-only, and non-degree cohorts against full-time students.
• Outstanding assignments. Use real-time reporting to see who has not started or finished and send targeted reminders.
• Learner attitudes and behaviors. Vector Solutions provides insights about learner attitudes, beliefs, behaviors, and experiences related to course content. You can add custom survey questions and benchmark your data against national averages and similar institutions.
• Knowledge gains. Pre- and post-course assessments show whether students are acquiring critical information.

For more strategies tailored to two-year institutions, download our free guide, Supporting Student Well-Being: A Guide for Community Colleges.

Make Wellness Part of Student Success With Vector Solutions

Vector Solutions delivers online safety and prevention education to more than 2,000 colleges, universities, serving more than 10 million learners annually. Our higher education student courses are supported by nine course-efficacy studies published in peer-reviewed journals.

Beyond the courses themselves, platform features help student services teams reach more students and see whether training is working. An optional translations feature offers more than 20 language options, and follow-up surveys sent 30 days after course completion measure long-term impact. Together, they help make wellness a standing part of student success, not a one-time event.

Frequently Asked Questions About Supporting Adult Learners

What support do adult learners in higher education need?

Adult learners benefit from support that fits around work and family, including mental well-being resources, stress management, financial literacy, and clear guidance on where to get help. Online, on-demand training lets them access that support without extra trips to campus.

Does online wellness training replace counseling services?

No. Online wellness training supports your counseling, basic needs, and health services. It reaches students who may never visit those offices and points them to campus resources when they need help.

How can colleges learn what their adult learners need?

Start with data. Collecting information on students’ behaviors, experiences, needs, and characteristics helps you decide which topics to prioritize and how to deliver them. Enrollment data by student population, short student surveys, and input from advising and continuing education staff can all show where non-traditional students need more support.

Can colleges add their own content to wellness training?

Yes. With Learning Studio, institutions can build their own training materials and tailor the content, narration, and visuals of Vector Solutions’ expert-authored courses. Course configurations also let you relate important campus policies, so training reflects your institution’s resources and expectations.