gile, flexible and able to adapt to a changing environment. Those characteristics can save a species from extinction. They're also the attributes career-minded professionals - as well as institutions of higher education - must have to thrive in today's highly competitive, ever changing marketplace.

WPI's Office of Continuing Education has provided market-driven professional education programs to nearly 45,000 people in the last two decades. The content of those programs has evolved to keep pace with the new knowledge and sophisticated delivery systems wrought by rapid-fire technological advances. The competition from other educational service providers has grown stronger, as well. WPI, like the working professionals who enroll in its classes, knows the importance of acquiring new knowledge, upgrading skills, and expanding its reach to remain a strong contender in an increasingly global market.

Knowledge and skills run a daily race with obsolescence in today's high-tech work environments. To get ahead, stay ahead, or retool their skills, unprecedented numbers of professionals today are seeking educational opportunities that are both relevant and accessible. WPI is reaching out to that significant market in the Northeast by offering its certificate, graduate and continuing education programs on campus and at new branch campuses in Westboro and Waltham, Mass.

One of the largest concentrations of high technology professionals in New England lives and works near Rte. 128, outside of Boston. Now, as that skilled workforce races along this busy stretch of road, a large sign on the side of a tall office building beacons them to the WPI Waltham Campus. According to Arlene Lowenstein, director of continuing education at WPI, the University chose the site of its second branch campus carefully.

"We went where the industries and the greatest number of technical professionals are concentrated," she says. "We went into Waltham with high expectations."

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Arlene Lowenstein says creating a branch campus in Waltham has enabled WPI to reach out to one of the nation's largest concentrations of high technology workers.

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Those expectations have been exceeded since day one, largely due to WPI's reputation for high-caliber education. "It's been gratifying to see the response from individuals and the business community to our presence in Waltham," Lowenstein says.

The 15,000-square-foot facility boasts the latest in computing equipment and technology. In its six classrooms, including two state-of-the-art computer labs, WPI faculty teach certificate programs in client/server technology, UNIX/C programming and C++ programming, along with evening courses and graduate degree programs in management, computer science and several engineering disciplines. During the work week, many professional development seminars and customized corporate training programs meet there.

The campus's core clientele is the fastest growing academic population today - the adult learners. The demographics of the American college population have changed dramatically in the past decade. Nearly half of all students enrolled in colleges nationwide attend school part time. Adults 25 and older account for half of all college-credit-seeking students and half of all graduate students. The adult population's return to school is tied to the rapid pace at which technology continues to change the workplace. The scale of those changes has sent a clear message to employees in every industry. Lifelong learning has become an unspoken condition of employment because knowledge is both a perishable commodity and a resource that must be continually renewed.

"Like today's working professionals, we at WPI can't stand still," Lowenstein says. "We need to be at the forefront in the educational services and training we offer, if we are to stay competitive in a changing marketplace."

Elizabeth Walker