By Dr. Katie Brown
Every year, thousands of adult learners take advantage of career training programs like apprenticeships, Integrated Education and Training (IET), and experiential learning. These “learn by doing” programs often serve as an on-ramp to high-demand careers with family-sustaining wages in sectors like health care, technology, skilled trades, and more. They also play a central role in building a fully staffed, economically mobile, future-ready workforce.
But in order for these programs to be effective, we must ensure that they are accessible to all adult learners – and today, that includes intentionally focusing on English learners, who now account for 1 in 10 working-age adults in the U.S.
Despite the changing demographics of the U.S. workforce, many career training programs are offered only in English. This disparity is part of a systemic issue: The U.S serves the needs of just 4% of adult English learners. Persisting English barriers limit access to career pathways and drive chronic unemployment and underemployment amongst workers from immigrant and refugee backgrounds, even as local employers struggle with critical staffing shortages across the country.
There’s good news: workforce development programs are well-positioned to connect working adults with both English and career skills simultaneously – if adult educators reimagine their approach to second language instruction. Rather than treating English proficiency as a prerequisite to workforce training, adult educators can now access tools to incorporate English instruction directly into these programs.
Models For Success
Many of the most popular career training pathways – occupations like Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA), Building Construction and Maintenance, CDL Driver, Hospitality, and Child Care Professional – are in frontline fields that are experiencing acute and ongoing worker shortages. Immigrant and refugee workers are well-positioned to help fill staffing gaps, and forward-looking adult educators are using an approach called upskilling with English upskilling to open opportunity:
English upskilling is a proven approach: A recent survey of more than 6,000 workers from immigrant and refugee backgrounds shows the promise of this approach for IET programs and more. A full 95% of workers said that English upskilling helped them improve their confidence in using English; another 93% reported saving time at work as a result of improved English skills. And 87% achieved a career goal like getting a promotion at their job – or starting a new one.
English skills are workforce skills – and should be taught like any other career skill in job training programs.
Dr. Katie Brown is Founder and Chief Education Officer at EnGen, a Certified B Corporation that partners with community colleges, employers, and government institutions to deliver personalized, career-aligned, mobile first English upskilling to speakers of other languages.