Foundations & Other Mission-Aligned Organizations

Our Case for Support

By developing innovative solutions with partners and funders across the learning and work ecosystem, CAEL helps champion the adult learner, creating sustainable initiatives for accessible, relevant, lifelong learning pathways. In doing so, we ultimately help systems transform to foster upward mobility and to eliminate inequities in how they serve minorities, adult, part-time, and low-income students.

HOW CAEL CAN HELP

Demonstrate your impact

Demonstrate impact through seamless coordination with organizations that share your vision and advance your mission

Promote social mobility and economic equity

Help postsecondary education realize its full potential as a catalyst of social mobility and cornerstone of economic equity

Support underserved populations

Increase access to enhanced career opportunities for traditionally underserved populations

Postsecondary Education Change Academies to Optimize Adult Learner Outcomes

CAEL developed its Academy model to offer research-based practices that support persistence and completion, such as CAEL’s Adult Learner 360 diagnostic tool. The program also offers professional development for institutional staff to help them create lasting infrastructure and ways of working that embrace workforce collaboration and other adult-focused support that drive adult student enrollment, persistence, completion, and post-completion success, particularly within the context of underserved learners. CAEL looks forward to expanding the Academy model as it engages with new partners focused on increasing social mobility through this critical work, particularly by serving at-risk populations like Black, Latino, American Indian, Pacific Islanders, and veterans.

Growing Latino Enrollment = Institutional Partnership Potential

With Latinos projected to make up over a quarter of the United States population in coming years, colleges need to figure out how to best meet the needs of adult Latino learners. And learn about CAEL's Latino Adult Student Success Academy, too.

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Inclusive Workforce Development Ecosystems

Access to economic prosperity remains inequitable. Racial injustice creates barriers to employment as do imbalanced social systems. We are sitting at a moment in history when advocates, policymakers, and practitioners are seeking new models and initiatives to resolve centuries-old problems of racial, gender, and societal equity -- and at the end of the day, equity and inclusion are intrinsically linked to jobs. Communities and their leaders recognize that barriers exist, but they lack access to the resources needed to inform and lead lasting behavioral and structural change. The Inclusive Workforce Development (IDN) Ecosystem creates collective impact by bringing together community workforce leaders, employers, and education providers to evolve current norms and promote strategies for inclusive economic and workforce development.

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Uplifting Through Upskilling: Corpus Christi/Nueces County and the Inclusive Development Network

Five U.S. regions comprise CAEL's first IDN cohort: Cleveland, OH; Corpus Christi/ Nueces County, TX; Spokane, WA; the Northeast Oklahoma Regional Alliance (NORA); and Pensacola, FL. Discover the project's early impact on the Corpus Christi region.

The 10 Principles and CAEL’s Nonprofit Legacy of Serving Adult Learners

Since CAEL’s founding in 1974, adult learners have been at the center of CAEL’s nonprofit mission. The COVID-19 crisis, its resulting massive unemployment and workforce disruption, and a renewed national resolve to address chronic social inequities make a postsecondary focus on adult learner retention and completion more relevant than ever. As a result, postsecondary institutions that hope to better meet the needs of adult learners must quickly adapt and create new ways of operating. The crisis presents a chance to fundamentally improve the systems, programs, and policies that support economic opportunity for adult learners.

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New Research from CAEL and WICHE on PLA & Adult Student Outcomes

Institutions use different methods to award college credit for prior learning—particularly from work, life, and military experiences. Read our recent research with 72 institutions that explores the benefits of PLA/CPL for adult learners.

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Connecting Education to Work/Rapid Reemployment

Digital transformation, artificial intelligence, and automation have already changed the nature of how many of us work, learn, and live. The pace of this transformation has increased as a result of COVID-19. Specific industries and workers are already disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, including those most vulnerable to technological change such as retail, office administration, the gig economy, and hourly or under-credentialed workers. Now more than ever, it is crucial to advance data-driven strategies that enhance career pathways and employment outcomes in order to help disadvantaged, displaced, and unemployed workers train, upskill, and get back to work. Our overall goal with this work is to improve access to and participation in the workforce, thereby impacting economic and social outcomes.

Learn more now about the 2023 CAEL Conference in Baltimore, MD!