Intersect With Earl June 2025

by Earl Buford on Jun 12, 2025

Collective efforts to strengthen the education-to-employment ecosystem for adult learners and workers remain in full swing. Below you’ll find compelling reports that highlight the value of employer-sponsored education benefits, vital English skills training, and microcredentials. We also highlight examples of collaboration and innovation—both in creating ways forward and ensuring we don’t take needless steps backward.

Archways to Opportunity: Education benefits can be a “golden pathway” to effectively linking learning and work. They help learners overcome financial barriers to furthering their education while offering time-saving flexibility. They also improve recruiting, retention, and even productivity. McDonald's has long recognized these benefits. It recently released the Archways to Opportunity 10th Anniversary Report, which details KPIs and personal success stories related to the company’s education and career pathways support. CAEL is proud to support the program through Archways to Careers, a career-navigation app that is a key component of Archways to Opportunity’s advising element.

An oft-overlooked workforce skill: Whether learners receive employer support or pay for education entirely on their own, the more work-relevant a subject is, the greater its potential to support career advancement. It doesn’t get more work-relevant than English skills, at least for English learners. To help overcome language barriers that prevent progression along rewarding career pathways, CAEL partners with EnGen to bring work-based English language upskilling to learners throughout the country. EnGen summarizes the importance of this priority in its 2025 Workforce Report. In addition, on June 17 at 2 p.m. ET, EnGen will host a webinar discussion of the 2025 Workforce Report. The event will feature EnGen founder Katie Brown, Ph.D., Stuart Andreason from The Burning Glass Institute, Megan Dichter from Maine Department of Education, Joan Dolan from Maine Department of Labor, and Ashley Faubion from CAEL. Panelists will explore how English upskilling enhances retention, recruitment, and engagement. Register here.

A major boost from microcredentials: CAEL advocates for using microcredentials to better meet learners and workers where they are. By “unbundling” certificate and degree programs, stackable microcredentials allow learners to progress toward long-term success while enjoying near-term benefits. A new report from Coursera quantifies some of that impact, finding, for example, that 96% of global employers believe microcredentials strengthen job seekers’ candidacies, with 90% indicating they command higher salaries.

Let’s remove barriers for adult learners, not create them: The Senate has released its response to the House reconciliation bill, and while there were some positive modifications to the House’s Pell Grant proposals, we remain concerned about how the final legislation would negatively affect adult learners. Recently, CAEL became a signatory to a letter to the Senate organized by The Hope Center for Student Basic Needs. You can also read their statement on the House bill here.

The collaborative power of chambers of commerce: As the urgency of cultivating fertile education-employment ecosystems grows, so does the role of our nation’s chambers of commerce. Project-specific partnerships with chambers are a frequent highlight among our membership community. On a broader level, I’m excited about the renewal of our partnership with the Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives. For a second year, members of both organizations will benefit from a complementary network of resources that support intersecting issues such as employer education benefit programs, work-based learning, skills-based hiring, employer-higher education partnerships, talent attraction, credit for prior learning, career pathways, and high school work-based learning opportunities. These topics will also be explored at the 2025 ACCE Annual Convention, in July. Learn more and register here.

Municipal Action Cohort update: Thank you to Darrah Mugrauer, who represented CAEL during a panel discussion at the International Town and Gown Association annual conference. The session, which focused on the impact of climate events on postsecondary and workforce programs, was part of CAEL’s work with the National League of Cities and included representatives from NLC and LaBelle, Florida, a member of the CAEL-NLC Municipal Action Cohort.

The power of collaboration in Colorado: CAEL was proud to participate in the Colorado Community College System 2025 Chancellor's Summit on Adult Education, where Christine Carpenter, along with leaders from Strada Education Foundation and InsideTrack, conducted a keynote panel, The Adult Learner Ecosystem: Collaborating to Maximize Impact. Doug Heckman also provided an introduction to CAEL’s Military Community of Practice during the event.

CAEL Member Mention: Members are the heart of CAEL, and we're thrilled to dedicate June as Member Appreciation Month. Of course, the impact of our members continues year round. As the latest examples, we congratulate several CAEL members, including Dallas College, Eastern Washington University, Florida Gulf Coast University, Ivy Tech Community College, University of Maryland Global Campus, Morgan State University, and Northern Michigan University for their selection to the inaugural LER Accelerator cohort. Learning and employment records capture diverse forms of education, training, and employment achievements, offering individuals a more equitable way to showcase their competencies and making it easier for employers to recognize them during the hiring process. They are an important component of our approach to regional upskilling.

Grant opportunity: From the Department of Commerce: “The NIST National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE) program is seeking applications from eligible applicants for activities to establish community-based partnerships to develop cybersecurity career pathways that address local workforce needs. Effective multistakeholder workforce partnerships will organize multiple employers with skill shortages in specific occupations to focus on developing the skilled workforce to meet industry needs within the local or regional economy.” Apply by July 1.