Low-skilled workers struggle to compete for gainful employment
In 2000 the US Department of Labor Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS) surveyed employers in a range of workplaces to determine what skills students needed to become work-ready. Their report, What Work Requires of Schools, identified what are now known as the SCANS skills, the tested and still-unchallenged gold standard of workplace readiness. These include basic skills, thinking skills, and workplace readiness, such as reliability, teamwork, and leadership. But no readiness skill can overcome a weak foundation in the basic workplace skills: reading, writing, math, and English-language proficiency.
Nationally, as in RI, Adult Education concentrates on these basic skills.
