For information about volunteering contact Tom Oatts at 303-922-4683 or Tom@ColoradoLiteracy.org

As businesses plan for success, an all too common theme surfaces – the ongoing shortage of qualified workers.  The 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy estimates that 30 million people over the age of 16 in the U.S. struggle to read a newspaper article and follow a bus schedule to travel across town.  This finding is reflected in the manufacturing industry’s 2005 Skills Gap report that showed that more than 80 percent of respondents experience ongoing shortages of qualified workers overall. 

The reality of business in the 21^st Century is that there are fewer and fewer “unskilled” jobs.  This change in work environments is not something we need to be prepared to address in the future, but is something businesses are dealing with today.

The declining skill levels of the workforce are not confined to the manufacturing industry, but translate throughout the business community.   The 2003 National Adult Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL)  found that the percentages of people performing in the lowest two levels haven’t changed since 1992, but that the number of adults with post-secondary degrees who performed in the “proficient” category on the NAAL survey dropped from 40 to 31 percent.  

This trend is supported by international studies evaluating adult skills that found both a reduction in the lowest performing level ofU.S. adults and a similar reduction in the number of U.S. adults performing at the highest level.  Of the countries compared – U.S., Norway, Bermuda, Canada, Switzerland and Italy, the U.S. outperformed only Italy in a number of literacy assessments. 

The estimated cost of illiteracy to businesses in America is more than $225 billion a year in lost productivity.   Proliteracy Worldwide’s State of Adult Literacy2006 reflects that we should be concerned for economic reasons: “Adult low literacy threatens America’s ability to hold its ground against rising economic competitors.  Jobs that require only minimal skills in the U.S. are the first to be lost to individuals overseas.”  The report also concludes that high skill, high wage jobs are the next to go overseas.

For practitioners in adult literacy programs throughout Colorado, these figures are not a surprise.   Programs continue to operate with waiting lists and are tasked to provide instruction in reading, writing and mathematics, often relying on the talents of community volunteers to help as many people as possible.  As businesses become increasingly lean, 50 percent of manufacturers report spending more money on training, while another 44 percent have maintained the same level of training budgets.  These monies are overwhelmingly focused on providing technical and job-specific training, leaving the basic literacy skills development to the network of adult literacy programs throughout Colorado communities.

To facilitate this work, local programs rely on a small amount of federal Workforce Investment Act funding, and local grants and donations.  Colorado remains the only state to never have provided funding for adult basic education.   The education continuum in Colorado provides many opportunities for our workforce to re-enter the system if they were successful at the last step, but it is much more difficult for the more than 600,000 Coloradoans who are functionally illiterate to advance their skills to the level needed by Colorado’s employers and realize their full potential. 

2000 Census data reports that 17.63 percent or 585,302 of Colorado’s adults do not have a high school diploma.  The Colorado Department of Education reports that Colorado adult literacy programs are able to provide services to less than 20,000 adults each year, while maintaining extensive waiting lists.  Of the adult learners enrolled in Colorado programs during the 2005-06 school year, 77 percent were between 19 and 44 years of age and are clearly a significant part of Colorado’s workforce.  It isn’t a major leap to conclude that investing in Colorado ’s adult basic education programs is an investment in Colorado ’s workforce.

Solera National Bank will be sponsoring Literacy, GED and Path-to-Citizenship classes at four Learning Source locations—the Belmar Learning Center, Calvary Baptist Church, Lowry College Prep Center and the Peoria Learning Center.

In addition to sponsoring coffee breaks at the four centers, Solera National Bank will provide financial literacy information to students and will lead a discussion on financial literacy once each semester.

“We are proud to be associated with The Learning Source and support its educational programs,” says James Perez Foster, Founder and Director of Hispanic Initiatives for Solera National Bank, and Member of the Board of Directors for The Learning Source.  “The sponsorship helps us to continue our focus on the importance of family education and community outreach.”

“The support of the business community is key for the work we do throughout metro Denver,” says Susan Lythgoe, Executive Director of The Learning Source.  “We’re excited to add Solera National Bank as a sponsor for our programs.”

Solera National Bank is a mainstream, community commercial bank that holds a core competency in the servicing and unique understanding of a culturally diverse and dynamic Hispanic market.