At age 40, Big Lake, Minn. resident Larry Sundberg has more than 20 years work experience in the food service industry. He started out in the restaurant business as a teen and worked his way up to director of purchasing for a metro-area food service management company. But a few years ago, his company merged with another firm and he got laid off.

Suddenly, his 20+ years of work experience wasn’t enough to open doors to a comparable job. The problem? Sundberg doesn’t have a college degree, and in a tight job market, that can make all the difference.

When Sundberg graduated from a northern metro area high school back in the 1980s, he planned to take a year or two to find himself before heading off to college. Somehow, life intervened, and getting a college degree remained on his wish list.

With Anoka-Ramsey Community College’s Competency-Based Education (CBE) program, Sundberg is now much closer to getting his wish.

“My goal is to get a four-year degree in fewer than four years,” says Sundberg. “To know that I could jump start my college experience with CBE was huge.”

Competency-Based Education is a nontraditional program that allows adult learners to translate experiential learning acquired outside the classroom into credit toward a college degree. It’s designed for people who have significant work or volunteer experience, and/or who want to make use of community resources, independent studies, internships and other out-of-classroom experiences in their college learning.

“Basically, they’ve helped me turn my work experience inside out and examine it carefully to figure out my strengths and level of understanding for each subject,” Sundberg says. “You try to extract from that whatever holds value in terms of college-level learning. It’s a lot of work doing projects, writing essays, taking tests - it’s no free lunch.”

Each CBE student develops an individualized program based on life and educational goals, as well as past experiences. A career assessment may be given, to help the student determine what sort of work for which he or she wants to prepare.

Sundberg’s goal is to prepare for a job in information systems management.

“Ideally, I’d like to become a technology director in an educational setting,” Sundberg says.

To accomplish his goals, Sundberg has enrolled concurrently at Anoka-Ramsey Community College (ARCC) and Metropolitan State University. He intends to earn an Associate in Arts and a Bachelor of Arts in six semesters. Through the CBE program, he’s directly translated his past work experiences into 12 credits, and he’s tested out of another nine credits of coursework with credit-by-exams. He’s averaged 23 credits per semester over the last three semesters -- and maintained a 4.0 grade point average while doing it.

“Larry has shown great drive and dedication toward pursuing his degree,” says CBE Coordinator Shirley Andreason. “We’ve had him come speak to other CBE students so they can hear first-hand how much a student can accomplish in the program.”

To be admitted to the CBE program, potential students must schedule an interview with Andreason; complete an ARCC College Admission Application; submit transcripts for any work completed at colleges, vocational/business schools, military training, an/or CLEP exams; and complete the CBE Individualized Educational Planning Course prior to having competencies assessed.

The next introductory CBE course begins Jan. 10. For more information or to schedule an interview, contact Shirley Andreason at 763-422-3331, or via email. Additionally, a free workshop for adults considering college will be held Saturday, Jan. 8, 9-11 a.m. at ARCC’s Coon Rapids Campus in the Riverview Cafeteria. To sign up for this Adult Return-To-School Workshop, call 763-427-2600.