Faced with rapidly changing technology and an economy that makes staying with the same company for a lifetime seem as outdated as the typewriter, adults are spending more time than ever in the classroom.

      "It's a never-ending loop of learning and working and learning and working or learning while working — that's just what it's become."

      "People used to talk about K-to-12 learning. Now it's K-to-death."

      Getting an education has become an ongoing adult pursuit. In this new Knowledge Economy, the field in which you earned your bachelor's degree or started your career will probably not be your field for life. Today's workers will change jobs five times before they are 40, and will likely change careers three times before they retire, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers.

      Most people realize that the days of getting by with just a high school diploma are gone. Commencement is now taking on its true meaning: It's just the beginning.

      In the long run, the investment in higher learning does pay off . People with a bachelor's degree earn almost twice the annual mean salary of those with only a high school degree, U.S. Census research shows.

      Incomes continue to climb with the number of degrees held. Those with master's degrees now earn a mean yearly salary of $51,183; those with doctorates make $77,145.

      But salary isn't the only thing that drives people to higher learning.

      Florence Ross recently earned her doctorate at the age of 82. Ross, who has a bachelor's in political science and a master's in the same subject, calls her continual pursuit of education a "survival skill."

      "In order to survive, you have to live life with a purpose," says Ross, "My whole life has been a thrust, a hunger for wisdom. I've always wanted to be a scholar. It made me feel an element of authenticity to everything I was engaged in ."

      For some, returning to school brings new dimensions to their career.

      Maritza Fuentes earned a medical degree in her native Cuba and was a family practitioner for three years. About 11 years ago she decided to combine her love of medicine with a lifelong interest in journalism. Fuentes earned a certificate in television journalism in Spanish from the University of Miami.

      Today Fuentes hosts a segment, "For Your Health", on WLTV news shows at 6 and 11 p.m. "I always wanted to be a journalist," says Fuentes, "this allowed me to put journalism together with medicine. I'm not exactly changing my career — just pursuing a new angle."

      Like many other professionals, Fuentes earned her certificate while working. Almost every public and private school has changed its schedule to accommodate working adults. Night classes have long been a mainstay on college campuses, but now weekend courses have become commonplace.

      The Internet has opened up even more possibilities for adult learners. In the 1997-98 school year, 54,470 different online courses were offered and an overwhelming majority of them — 91 percent — were college-level credit courses.

      Master's degrees in business have become very popular in recent years. Peterson's Guide to Distance Learning Programs listed 129 online MBA programs in 2000.

      But for many adults looking to improving their career prospects, a certificate is often quicker, cheaper and more focused than a master's degree. The post-baccalaureate certificate has become the continuing-education currency of choice for many professionals, who are realizing they can get what they want to further their careers without writing a thesis.

      The demand has brought success to computer schools like The Academy, a 3-year-old private company that contracts with Microsoft to train, test and certify systems engineers. The Academy caters to working adults. People with no knowledge about computers can enroll and finish the course in about six months. Those with some prior knowledge can move faster through the series of seven exams.

      Some companies are forming their own internal schools — dubbed "corporate universities" — or teaming up with universities to conduct their own in-house training.

      Employers are often the biggest financial backers for professionals seeking more education. About 68 percent of students in adult education courses receive at least partial funding from an employer.

      Sometimes people have no choice but to continue their education. It used to be that only careers such as medicine and teaching demanded continued learning and credit hours to maintain licenses or certificates. But today an increasing number of occupations have postsecondary requirements.

      "That's only going to increase," says Willis Holcombe, president of Broward Community College. "It's all over the place. Even if it isn't required for a license it's important to keep going forward for your own competitiveness. You have to stay conversant with the technology."

      "That's just the reality of it, whether it's going back to campus or going online or to workshops and noncredit classes. There's just no way you can stop being a learner."

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