FAQ’s

1. What is “lifelong learning”?

Lifelong learning is education/learning in which a person engages throughout his or her life and that takes place at all levels – formal, non-formal, and informal. It is the process of acquiring knowledge or skills throughout life via schools and formal educational programs, distance/online programs, training, work and general life experiences. Typically the term applies to adults of all ages and backgrounds.

2. And CAEL stands for The Council for Adult and Experiential Learning. What does that mean?

Essentially “Experiential Learning” is learning in the context of a real-life situation or learning that occurs through the events in one’s life whether that is from classroom study, gaining new skills at work, through training, from online programs or most certainly from a mixture of all these and a person’s experiences in life. In many cases, it is learning through the evaluation of one’s everyday experiences. In addition, many variations of educational programs are designed around the principles of experiential learning. This is the type of learning that our organization promotes through workforce development programs, lifelong learning initiatives, and policy and strategic alliances.

For more information on what CAEL is, see our vision and mission statement

3. How does CAEL assist its clients?

CAEL helps adults continue their learning by working directly with and offering services to educational institutions, employers, labor organizations, government, and communities. We assist our broad range of clients to connect learning and work – allowing them to build systems that are more efficient and help adult learners succeed.

For employers we provide smarter and more cost-efficient education choices for their lower-wage employees.  Our services for business and industry help employees make the sense of their education choices and build a plan that is cost efficient, saves time, and leads to jobs in hard-to-fill positions. We also help employers to assess their learning organization and the skills they are building in their workforce to see if they match their strategic goals. The result is cost-efficiency, an internal storehouse of needed skills, and increased loyalty, engagement and mobility among employees.
 For institutions of higher education, we assist them to better serve, attract and retain adult learners. We offer varying services for higher education institutions and organizations, along with CAEL Membership and publications.

For economic and workforce developers, we position them to be ready for emerging industries and new skill demands, and build effective workforce development strategies to meet those demands. We help them connect the learning systems in the region to the work and employment needs of local industry.

For more information on our services to clients see the “Our Services” page.

4. Who are some of CAEL’s clients?

We work with various different industries and businesses. CAEL has clients in the electric utilities industry, telecommunications and technology, unions, health care, with public and non-profit organizations, manufacturing, financial/insurance/consulting, and consumer goods and services companies. We also serve numerous public, private and for profit institutions of higher education that wish to improve their services and outreach to adults.

5. I’m an adult who wants to further my education. How can CAEL help me?

Historically, we have promoted lifelong learning through our various clients discussed above and in partnerships with other educational institutions, employers, labor organizations, government, and communities rather than working directly with individuals. However, we will soon be launching online services for adults that will allow them to:

• Get advice on career and education choices


• Acquire college credit for learning that occurred outside the classroom. The online center will be in a pilot phase for all of 2011, but will open to the general starting January 2012.


• In the meantime, you can explore your options for acquiring college credit for your learning:


• If you are a student, you should ask your academic advisor about “Prior Learning Assessment” options at your campus. This is the term colleges use for assessing what you learned to see if it is worth college credit.


• If you are not a student, but you want to be, look for schools in your area, or online schools with service in your area and, when inquiring, ask about “Prior Learning Assessment”. You can also search for this term on the colleges’ websites.

You can also consider purchasing our printed book, Earn College Credit for What You Know. For details on purchasing this title, click here or check out our Publications section.

6. What is EdLink?

EdLink, LLC is an independent company jointly created by CAEL and another national non-profit leader in education, ACT, Inc.

EdLink provides complete corporate tuition assistance management services -- working with employers to gain more business value from tuition programs while minimizing the costs.

The nation’s largest provider of tuition assistance management services, EdLink builds upon the combined strength of CAEL and ACT to offer an integrated range of related services to make education more accessible to employees. For more information about EdLink visit www.edlinktuition.com

7. What is Prior Learning Assessment (PLA)?

Learning is a lifelong activity (see lifelong learning above). Many adults, who want to return to or attend college, seek credit for this lifelong learning in order to accelerate progress toward a degree or certificate. Prior Learning Assessment (PLA) is a method whereby learning gained through an individual’s life is considered for credit toward a college degree program. A rising number of colleges and universities are conducting PLA to help these individuals earn college credit for their demonstrated learning. Credit is given by the institution depending on the criteria set by this PLA-offering institution. CAEL offers PLA training workshops to colleges and universities across the country and online. This training provides university staff and faculty assessors with the basic tools to assess an adult’s prior learning and its possible qualification for college credit.

We offer a variety of publications and workshops that are on-site or in online formats to assist colleges and universities with their PLA programs.

8. We are a college or university that is interested in designing a program for and/or integrating adult learners. What programs/materials does CAEL offer to help our institution retain adult learners?

CAEL has instituted the Adult Learning Focused Institution (ALFI) Initiative to assist colleges and universities in attracting and serving adult learners and design programs for these adult learners. We offer benchmarking tools, publications, study tours, and consulting services for this purpose. As a key component of the ALFI Initiative, we have developed the ALFI Assessment Toolkit. The ALFI Tools are based on CAEL’s Principles of Effectiveness for Serving Adult Learners. They are a pair of instruments, The Institutional Self-Assessment Survey (ISAS) and The Adult Learner Inventory (ALI), which work together to help you uncover what is important to your adult learners, as well as pinpoint your institution’s strengths and areas for improvement.

9. How do I become a member of CAEL?

As a member of CAEL, you’ll be part of a growing group of individuals, organizations and institutions committed to their own success and that of their employees, students, members and constituents. In active partnership, CAEL members work to create better living and learning conditions for all. We offer membership in several forms: Institutional Membership for colleges and universities, Organizational Membership, and Individual Membership. Becoming a member of CAEL is an easy process. Simply visit our Membership page and download the “Membership Application.” It gives all of the details you need to apply for a membership with CAEL.

10. What are Online Learning Initiatives? What is NACTEL? What is EPCE?

CAEL’s Online Learning Initiatives integrate many years of previous experience in managing tuition assistance programs, providing career and educational advising, and working with higher education. We developed the Online Learning Initiatives as another way to expand learning opportunities for adult learners and the industries in which they work.

CAEL currently has two major Online Learning Programs: NACTEL and EPCE. The National Coalition for Telecommunications Education and Learning (NACTEL) was brought together in 1997 with the help of CAEL. This industry partnership was designed to develop and deliver online education and training to meet critical employment needs in the telecommunications industry. Members of the NACTEL coalition include Citizens Communications, the Communications Workers of America (CWA), the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), Qwest Communications, SBC, and Verizon Communications. Through Pace University, NACTEL offers these degrees and certificates online to its employees: The Associate of Science in Applied Information Technology, Telecommunications degree, The Bachelor of Science in Professional Technology Studies with a concentration in Telecommunications degree, Introduction to Telecommunications certificate, and Telecommunication Essentials certificate.

EPCE is the Energy Providers Coalition for Education. The EPCE is a partnership of electric utility companies, organizations, and unions that have joined together to respond to the industry's critical need for skilled power technicians. In June 2000, CAEL met with key representatives of this industry to discuss online education and training needs for the industry. Online instruction for the program is provided by Bismarck State College. The following degrees are offered through the program: for careers at electric power utilities, A.A.S. Degree in Electric Power Technology, Essentials of Electric Power Technology certificate, Program Certificate in Electric Power Technology and for careers at nuclear power plants, A.A.S. Degree in Nuclear Power Technology and Program Certificate in Nuclear Power Technology.
For more information, visit www.epceonline.org and www.nactel.org.

11. What are LiLAs?

LiLAs (Lifelong Learning Accounts) are individual asset accounts to finance lifelong learning so that workers can upgrade their skills and knowledge to achieve their career potential. We are working toward the goal of having any individual worker to be able to contribute funds to a LiLA account, which will then be matched by his/her employer and, in some cases, third parties. These combined contributions would be used for education and training and related activities for these incumbent workers, and would be portable.

LiLAs differ from traditional job training programs in that they create systemic change in the way individuals can invest in their own futures, while leveraging employer involvement and investment. CAEL is working toward the goal of having LiLAs become a standard part of workers’ compensation packages, similar to a 401(k) or health insurance.

For more information, please visit www.lifelonglearningaccounts.org.

12. What is WorkforceChicago?


CAEL’s WorkforceChicago initiative was established in the interest of strengthening workers, companies, and the regional economy by stimulating greater investment in employee learning and development on the part of companies. Through this initiative, we seek to position the Chicago area as a leading talent pool in the country by promoting workforce learning, development policies, and practices. Our goals for the initiative are to expand employee learning and development through regional commitments, recognize effective learning strategies used by Chicago area companies, demonstrate the value of company-sponsored learning initiatives, and strengthen relationships between industry, education providers, and the public sector.

We give an annual WorkforceChicago exemplary practices award to two companies in the region that are doing leading-edge work in their employee training and education programs that can be documented in case studies and shared with other companies. The CEO-level Business Leadership Group, which heads the WorkforceChicago initiative, consists of members who raise the awareness of the critical importance of workforce development for the region’s economy. They help to influence other firms to adopt WorkforceChicago’s exemplary practices in training and development.

For more information, please visit www.workforcechicago.org.