A small-business training program for adults over 50 includes attention to the specific concerns of mature entrepreneurs ”“ including marketing across the generation gap.
“A lot of people don”™t really understand social networks,” said Shelley Garnet, director of Mainstream, a training program at Westchester Community College. “Maybe their kids have been on Facebook, but they haven”™t been.”
Mainstream, the Institute for Mature Adults at Westchester Community College and the Women”™s Enterprise Development Center (WEDC) run the 18-session program.
The goal is to provide adults with the skills, tools and resources needed to start or expand a businesses and to achieve economic self-sufficiency.
Garnet said many mature adults wait almost a year before going back to school for training after losing their jobs or retiring.
With the uncertain status of the economy, “I would imagine that in the next few months we”™re really going to see an increase in participants,” Garnet said.
The location of the program changes each semester.
“We move it around so that it can be more convenient for different people, although we”™ve had people drive from Putnam County to Yonkers for class,” said Barbara Loizeaux, who teaches four computer classes for the program. “They will go the distance if they see the benefit of it.”
Loizeaux said computer training involves basic instruction on Internet research as well as more complicated tasks like cash flow planning using Excel spreadsheets.
There are 10 to 15 students per class.
“We have to make sure that people come out of our course really prepared to start a small business,” Garnet said. “Westchester has a lot of resources to help people to make this dream come true.”
The next session is scheduled to begin March 31 at the Ossining extension site of Westchester Community College (in the Arcadia Shopping Center). Classes meet for 18 sessions Tuesdays from 6 to 8:30 p.m. Tuition is $200, which includes the text book. To learn more about Mainstream, visit www.sunywcc.edu/mainstream.
