Vision 2025 was a summit held in June of 2019 in Chicago for the purpose of bringing together representatives from academia, providers, associations and business partners to collaborate on a goal to establish 25 financially viable accredited degree programs graduating 1,000 students annually by 2025.
The summit was attend by 137 individuals representing 37 colleges/universities, 42 provider organizations and 25 associations/business partners.
Key themes that emerged (by highest to lowest ranking) were as follows:
· Paid Internships
· Rebranding: Rhetoric and Optics
· Designing Career Path
· Investing in Degree Programs
· Comprehensive Curriculum
· Collaboration of Stakeholders
· Increasing Exposure of the Sector to Younger and Second Career Students
· Enhance and Expand EDI Efforts
· Supply/Demand Study
· University Leadership Commitment
· Regulatory Requirements
· Accreditation Process
· Skill Set Communication from the Field
Since the first summit, the Vision Centre has been established with the intent to strengthen future leaders in the field of aging services to meet the growing demands.