Adult students have different backgrounds, knowledge, experiences, abilities, interests, and learning needs. Hence, teaching all learners the same way is not the most effective. Individual differences should be considered. Exposing a whole class to one set of content, exercises, and assessment activities is unrealistic. In other words, to learn…

Skills Bootcamps were introduced to support the 2019 UK Government's manifesto commitment to giving adults the opportunity to build sector-specific skills and to help employers by giving people the skills they need to move into jobs in sectors with skills shortages. Skills Bootcamps are short, flexible courses, co-designed with employers and run…

This study explores the effectiveness of social practice approach by integrating social practices along with modern teaching strategies, and teacher training to address the challenge of low academic achievement among adult learners in basic literacy programs. For a 4-month experiment, two of a metropolitan city's fourteen adult literacy centres…

Our nation's economy and global competitiveness depend on an educated, skilled workforce that can quickly adapt to changes in technology and business processes. Adult educators understand that adult learners need opportunities to obtain workplace and career management skills through work-based learning experiences that prepare them for the complex…

In 2017, the government launched Career Learning Pilots in order to test the design and provision of various training approaches for working adults with low to intermediate skills. As part of this initiative, the Department for Education provided approximately £11.3 million in funding to pilot projects that offered flexible and accessible ways of…

This report sets out the results of work undertaken by Learning and Work Institute (L&W) in 2017/18 to develop and test the use of social metrics in Adult Community Learning provision to capture a range of wider outcomes of learning. The report highlights lessons learned, examples of effective practice and suggests ways in which the use of…

The purpose of this study was to examine how adult education providers in Chicago, Houston, and Miami are designing and implementing career pathways (CP) programming, especially for adults who are immigrants or have barriers to employment and education. The researcher-practitioner partnership included the Institute for the Study of Adult Literacy…

This brief summarizes findings from implementation, impact, and cost-benefit evaluations of Accelerating Opportunity (AO). AO is a career pathways initiative launched in 2011 that aims to help adults with low basic skills earn valued occupational credentials, obtain well-paying jobs, and sustain rewarding careers. AO was one of the first efforts…

The second annual implementation report for the Accelerating Opportunity (AO) initiative in four states finds that: (1) colleges aligned pathways and supports with local needs; (2) students were satisfied with AO; (3) AO instructors grew more adept at team teaching; (4) colleges struggled to recruit adult education students; (5) states and…

This paper focuses on recognition of prior learning as part of a national policy based on European Union guidelines for lifelong learning, and it explains how recognition of prior learning has been perceived since it was implemented in Portugal in 2000. Data discussed are the result of a mixed method research project that surveyed adult learners,…

With only four years of mandated state-standards in adult basic education (ABE), very little is known about the influence of state-standards implementation on the unique learning needs of its adult students. Two decades of research on standards-based education in the U.S. K12 system has yielded widely debated results regarding the impact of…

At their most basic level, digital badges are a new way to capture and communicate what an individual knows and can demonstrate. This report examines the nature, value, and potential impact of digital badges, an emerging electronic form of recognition of an individual's knowledge and skills. Badges can represent different levels of work and…

Accelerating Opportunity (AO) combined integrated career pathways at two-year colleges with team teaching, acceleration strategies, supportive services, and policy changes. It aimed to help low-skilled adults earn occupational credentials, obtain well-paying jobs, and sustain rewarding careers. This final implementation report documents activities…

During the affluent noughties it was sometimes said of government that it had "more visions than Mystic Meg and more pilots than British Airways". In 2011, the pilots, the pathfinders, the new initiatives are largely gone--implementation is the name of the game--but the visions remain. The latest one, as it affects adult learners, is in…

This report describes the implementation and early impacts of the Washington State Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training (I-BEST) program at three colleges: Bellingham Technical College, Everett Community College, and Whatcom Community College. I-BEST is a nationally known program that aims to increase access to and completion of…