Low Skills Limit Opportunity for All
Who Has Low Skills?
- About one in six adults ages 16-65 are low-skilled individuals.
- About one-third of low-skilled adults ages 16-65 are under age 35.
- Two-thirds of the youngest low-skilled adults ages 16-24 are men.
- One-third of low-skilled adults ages 16-65 are immigrants.
- Nearly three-fourths of adults ages 16-65 are black or Hispanic.
Who Would Benefit From Higher Skills?
Individuals and Families
- The economic payoff to individuals for higher skills is greater in the United States than in almost any other industrialized country.
- Increasing parents’ skills can improve education outcomes for their children.
- Higher-skilled adults are healthier, with implications for their ability to work, parent, and participate in their communities.
Business and Industry
- Increasing adult skills increases productivity.
- Because higher-skilled workers are also likely to be healthier, helping adults improve their skills indirectly raises productivity.
- Increasing skills expands access to employment and better-paying jobs, creating new customers for products and services.
Communities
- Low-skilled Americans are motivated to get ahead.
- Raising adult skills could lift community educational attainment for the next generation as well.
- States with better-educated workforces have higher economic growth and higher wages.
- Raising adult skills could potentially save communities substantial amounts in healthcare costs.
- Integrating immigrants may benefit communities economically.
- Raising adult skills could result in more civic engagement in communities.
Source:
U.S. Department of Education, Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education. (2015, February). Making Skills Everyone’s Business: A Call to Transform Adult Learning in the United States. Washington, D.C.: Author.