Samantha Smith, CWI Director of Adult Education, for the National Association of Workforce Development Professionals 07/08/26
Adult education forms the foundation of workforce development by equipping individuals with the essential skills needed to succeed in training, employment, and career advancement while strengthening our nation’s talent pipeline.
After more than 20 years in adult education, I’ve come to a simple conclusion: We cannot solve our workforce challenges without first addressing our literacy challenges.
As workforce professionals, we spend a great deal of time talking about talent pipelines, credential attainment, labor shortages, and economic competitiveness. These conversations are important. But too often, we focus on the middle and end of the workforce journey while overlooking where that journey begins.
It begins in adult education.
The Untapped Talent Pipeline
Every day across America, adult education programs serve individuals who have the desire to work, advance, and provide for their families but lack the foundational skills necessary to fully participate in today’s economy. These are adults without a high school diploma. These are workers whose reading or math skills limit advancement opportunities. These are English language learners. These are parents trying to help their children succeed while working to improve their own futures.
When workforce systems talk about untapped talent, these are the people I think about.
The reality is that employers are not only struggling to find workers with technical skills, but they are struggling to find workers with the foundational skills that make technical training possible in the first place. Reading workplace manuals. Completing digital onboarding. Understanding safety procedures. Communicating effectively with supervisors and customers. Learning new technologies as industries evolve.
Adult education helps build those skills.
Adult Education is Workforce Development
That is why I believe adult education is not simply a partner to workforce development. It is workforce development.
Yet too often, adult education continues to be viewed as a separate service rather than a foundational strategy. We invest heavily in occupational training programs, but we sometimes overlook the literacy, numeracy, digital skills, and language acquisition that make successful participation in those programs possible.
As a former classroom teacher and current workforce leader, I’ve seen what happens when adult education and workforce development operate together instead of alongside one another.
I’ve watched adult learners earn a high school equivalency and immediately enroll in occupational training. I’ve seen English language learners gain confidence, secure employment, and move into leadership positions. I’ve witnessed adults who once doubted their abilities become business owners, healthcare workers, skilled trades professionals, and community leaders.
These outcomes don’t happen by accident. They happen because someone invested in building a strong foundation.
Adult education contributes directly to measurable skill gains, credential attainment, employment outcomes, and economic mobility. More importantly, it serves many of the populations our workforce system was specifically designed to reach.
Moving From Alignment to Integration
But alignment cannot simply exist on paper. It must show up in how we design programs, allocate resources, share data, and measure success.
Integrated Education and Training (IET) models, co-enrollment strategies, and sector partnerships are not innovative extras. They should be standard practice. When workforce boards, employers, training providers, and adult education programs work together intentionally, learners move further and faster. Employers gain access to a larger pool of prepared workers. Communities benefit from stronger economic participation.
The data supports this work, but so do the stories.
For every performance metric we celebrate, there is a real person behind it, a parent who can now support a family, a worker who earned a promotion, or a student who became the first in their household to earn a diploma or credential. Those stories remind us that workforce development is ultimately about people.
Adult Education as Workforce Infastructure
As our nation continues to face labor shortages, rapid technological change, and widening skills gaps, now is the time to rethink how we view adult education. Not as remediation. Not as a safety net. Not as a separate system. But as workforce infrastructure.
If we are serious about building a competitive economy, expanding opportunity, and meeting employer demand, then adult education must be treated as a workforce investment rather than an educational afterthought.
The strongest workforce systems are not built on training alone; they are built on foundations, and adult education is one of the strongest foundations we have.
A Call to Action
For workforce leaders, policymakers, and practitioners across the country, the path forward is clear:
- Embed adult education as a core workforce strategy within state and regional plans.
- Expand Integrated Education and Training (IET) opportunities connected to high-demand industries.
- Strengthen co-enrollment, data-sharing, and collaboration across workforce partners.
- Increase investment in adult education as a proven workforce solution.
Most importantly, start viewing adult learners the way many of us who work in this field already do, not as individuals with deficits to overcome, but as talent waiting to be developed. The future of our workforce depends on it.