CAEL is uniquely positioned as a leading advocate for corporate and public policy change at the state and federal level, and change in higher education’s policies and practices regarding serving adult learners.

As a non-profit organization, CAEL is able to pursue work at all levels within the public and private sectors to enhance learning opportunities for adults. And, because we are neither a policy shop nor a community-based organization, we conduct the groundwork with working adult learners throughout the country and then use that experience to inform our policy change efforts.

Another unique focus of CAEL is our significant membership, our network of colleges and universities, and our independent board consisting of educators, employers, and trade unionists. Unlike many intermediaries, CAEL has multiple constituencies whose direct interests we serve—for their common benefit.

CAEL thrives because we are a successful provider of intermediary services to companies and the learners who work in them - many of whom are unionized - and to colleges and universities. We have long lasting and abiding relationships with all facets of postsecondary education because we are a neutral broker of their services and broaden their access to new learners. The public sector is both an ally and one of our employer clients.

With over thirty years of assessing and promoting experiential learning for adults - including our recent Adult Learning Focused Institution (ALFI) reform project - we are deeply enmeshed in the issues of how adults learn, how educational institutions can most effectively serve working adults, and how learning can be linked to employability, career advancement, and community.

It is in the capacity as a lifelong learning and workforce development intermediary that we redefine the traditional role of connector to include our work as a change agent. All of our work, with companies, unions, the public sector, and educational institutions promotes change in policy and practice to better serve working adults, employers, and their communities. We are well suited for this role because:

• We are national in scope, while implementing a variety of service projects in local communities
• We are integrally linked to colleges and universities, with hundreds of higher education institutions and individuals as members, and we continue to have influence in the higher education world through prior learning assessment expertise and benchmarking of “Adult Learning Focused Institutions”
• We have a strong and direct relationship to the business community – private sector companies are our clients and we have come to understand their needs and ways of operating
• We are focused on influencing public and corporate policy to produce sustaining change in the workforce development system
• We serve and are centered on working adults, who give us feedback on their needs and barriers to learning

Ultimately, CAEL follows a vision comprised of four basis propositions as we engage in our lifelong learning and workforce development activities:

• Lifelong Learning must be recognized as just as necessary for success as a K-12 education is now
• Learning opportunities for adults must be democratized
• An effective lifelong learning system will require the investment of both private and public resources
• An effective approach to lifelong learning and workforce development must include structural changes in all parts of the system

With our role as an intermediary defined, and our vision and mission as our guide, CAEL stands uniquely poised to promote change that will raise the visibility and importance of lifelong learning, thereby bringing learning opportunities to adults throughout society.