Obstacles to Obtaining Skills and Degrees

As technology changes jobs, workers’ ability to acquire new qualifications and in-demand skills can strengthen their resilience to job disruptions and help them connect to new opportunity. We set out to understand what kind of learning opportunities and new skills workers desire as they prepare for the future—and what limits their ability to acquire them. Their experiences indicate that their workplaces, the higher education system, and the overall training ecosystem often fail to meet their needs and preferences.

Workers value education and many are eager to continue learning and acquiring professionally relevant skills, but find it difficult to do so. Most young workers aspired to complete a degree and begin a new career, but setbacks and obstacles disrupted their education. Mid-career and older workers rarely wanted to go back to school for a formal degree or to study online. Instead, they expressed a desire for on-the-job training, employer-provided skill-development, apprenticeships, and affordable, short-duration training for professional credentials. Few had access to these opportunities. Our economic, education, and workforce development ecosystems must provide more of what adult workers want: affordable, quality, targeted skills training and work-based learning opportunities that suit their busy lives.

Many young workers aspire to a college degree but are undermined by setbacks and obstacles

Most young people we interviewed set out to earn a postsecondary degree when they finished high school. For nearly a dozen workers, a range of setbacks in four rough categories disrupted their studies in both community colleges and four-year schools:

1) Financial shocks and difficulties. Financial setbacks were the most frequent reason young workers cited for disrupted studies. A 29-year-old assistant gas station manager (described in Camila’s Profile) completed most of her training for an associate degree to be a medical assistant when her partner lost his job. This financial pressure added to what was already a difficult juggle managing full-time work, school, and child care. She dropped out of the course and was unable to pay the cost of her certification. If she returns to school, she thinks she will need to redo her coursework and field work. Right now, she is focused on paying off her debts. Similarly, a 20-year-old entry level retail stock clerk explained that he could not get to his college classes without a car: “I dropped out and waited until I had enough money to get a car. And I got a car, so now I'm planning to go back to school.…And yeah, I’m just following my goals in life and just step by step….I just tackled one with the car, so now I just got to do the next.”

2) School and financial aid challenges. Several interviewees faced setbacks due to problems at their schools. One retail worker attended a for-profit college that abruptly closed down, leaving her with “huge debt” and without a degree. Another young retail manager explained that the financial aid office messed up his aid. He was unable to take classes for nearly a year as a result.

3) Various school struggles. Others described struggling while in school, including mentally, financially, and academically. A young fast food worker, 18, described a very difficult first year of college without the support system he needs

Throughout school, it was really rough. I was struggling with depression and anxiety, and I’m not good at school in general. It was hard to motivate myself to do stuff. I need some kind of support—being around people I trust, like my family, or knowing I can talk to them if I need them and that they’ll help me or catch me if I fall hard. There was no one like that at school, so I fell hard. I learned from that and came back home and decided to get my stuff together and work.

4) Unclear academic and career direction. Not knowing what you want to study or what goals you are striving toward makes it difficult to pursue more education and see the value in finishing. Several interviewees were unsure of what they wanted to study, even as they took classes. They took classes for a semester or two and dropped out. One young grocery worker described switching majors twice and even changing schools before ultimately leaving altogether. An administrative assistant, 23, enrolled part-time in a community college after high school to take courses in psychology, but “it really didn't grab my attention. I didn't feel connected, so I immediately dropped it. Afterwards, I did some of my general classes the following semester. Eventually I left. For a good period of time I just stopped going to school until I decided to settle on something that I really wanted to do.” A cashier, 29, said something similar: “I'm not sure what I want to do. And that's probably why I haven't gone back to school yet, because I would like to go back…but I don't want to waste time…for something that I will come out of school and not be interested in doing.”

In each of these examples, the career dreams and education aspirations of young workers become the collateral damage of a higher education system that is failing too many people. These failures will have an outsize impact on the future of work for millions. Educational attainment is positively correlated to long-term earning potential and upward mobility. Less well known, education is inversely correlated to automation risk. According to the McKinsey Global Institute, workers with a high school degree or less face an automation risk four times as high as workers with a bachelor’s degree. When a degree remains out of reach, young workers are more likely to find lower quality jobs at high risk of automation not by choice, but by default. Much more work is needed for the higher education system to better meet the needs of students and workers with few financial resources and limited support, and especially for those workers balancing work with study.

Most mid-career and older adults expressed little interest in going back to school for a formal degree

While younger workers face hurdles to completing their degrees, mid-career and older workers described being consumed with the pressures of work and family and demonstrated little interest in going back to school. Interviewees cited a number of different factors limiting their demand for formal schooling, including time and resource constraints, aversion to debt, struggles with earlier education and a perception that additional training is for the benefit of their employer and not for them.

Several women with care responsibilities expressed reluctance to add additional demands to their schedule outside of their working hours. “I was thinking about going back to school, but maybe later on when my daughter’s older and I can. I’m thinking about sending her to an early start program, so that way I could go to school. I go to work and she goes to her babysitter, and I pick her up then when I’m off,” said a gas station assistant manager, 23. But “I don't want to leave my daughter alone a lot of time,” she said, “because I only see her like a little bit of hours in the morning, and then when I get home she is already sleeping.”

Many workers said they needed to rest and recover when they get home after a long day at work, before working again the next day. Frequently, grocery, retail, and fast food employees woke up as early as 2 or 3 in the morning. Often, they worked on their feet all day. Many workers described their days as long, tiring, and demanding. A 65-year-old administrative professional described her reluctance to take weekend classes in addition to her stressful job in the office. “A while ago, I actually did look into a training program” at a local college, she said. “They did offer classes but on Saturdays and Sundays, full time. And I thought, ‘I don't know if I could do that.’ You know, when I work full time here, I need a break on weekends. So unless I just rethink and revisit that, I'm not sure.”

Some workers expressed reluctance to go back to school and change careers because they did not complete their degree in the first place. A grocery manager, 45, told us that she asks herself, “what would you like to do?” He said, “my friends and I joke around because we're all big foodies and my friend says, ‘We need to start a catering truck.’ But honestly, I don't know what I would want to do. And then I didn't go to school. As far as education goes, it’s not that I can't, but I never did, so I would just kind of feel like, ‘OK, so….’” She admits that she “probably put limits on myself, too. I kind of feel like I don't have an education, so I'll just keep doing this.”

In addition, aversion to debt, often because workers were already struggling to free themselves from debt they have previously acquired, came up frequently as a deterrent to further studies.

Workers are lukewarm about online education and users give mixed reviews

We asked workers whether taking online classes appealed to them. The responses suggested tepid demand for online education, including from workers whose employers offered access to online classes for free or at a steep discount. All of the workers we spoke to who work for employers who offer online courses did not take advantage of this benefit, citing lack of time or interest, a sense that they did not know what they would study, or a lack of the computer infrastructure necessary to take the courses.

Younger workers who took online courses in the past offered mixed reviews of their experience. For example, a 22-year-old receptionist (described in Laura’s Profile), attempted to do an online degree in early childhood education while working full time. She found the online structure very challenging and she ultimately dropped out after a semester and a half. She said

You had to have a super strict schedule and that’s just something—I mean like, after I got home from work, I wanted to go to bed. I wanted to chill. And so it was really hard to get myself to do it. Really super hard. I had to take like one big test every two weeks and then we had a quiz every week. We never really had homework. We just had small things we had to fill out and then we had a quiz over all that. And it had to be done by Sunday at like 12 p.m. or something.…And I tried to dedicate Sundays to it but it’s hard. It’s so hard. And then I was like, this is not worth it. So I quit. I was really disappointed with myself.

An administrative assistant, 23 (described in Isabella’s Profile), cautioned that the online format will only work for certain people. She explained that online courses were initially difficult to navigate. To set herself up for success, she was able to leverage the organizational and professional skills she had developed in her administrative jobs but does not think her experience is applicable to all students.

When I first started taking them, the online classes were super confusing and I didn't know where to go or how to keep up. Eventually, I got it in my head that if I wanted to do it, I'd have to be on top of it and be very organized. Having those skills from work and knowing that things are pending without having someone to remind you helped me. As soon as I figured out that's how I had to work through those classes, I became more organized. I would set a specific schedule at home where I would need to sit down at my desk and have everything out and open. If I didn't have that schedule on my phone, I would just forget about it and it would be another Tuesday. I think online classes are very useful for those that are organized and want to get organized. I know if you're very independent and you like to work alone, it’s definitely a great thing to have. I do like to work alone and I don’t like working in groups…so whenever I had an assignment, it’s just me online.

Other workers we interviewed who had not taken online courses stated explicitly that they are not interested in them. A 25-year-old grocery manager minced no words: “I never wanted to take online classes. No. Nothing like that. I don't want to waste time going to take classes just to take classes.” The online format clashes with the social experience that many workers preferred with more traditional learning. A 20-year-old retail store stocker said he did not like the remote format and lack of engagement. “I wouldn’t take online classes if that were an opportunity for me, because it wouldn't be the same. You wouldn't be able to ask a question.…I think it would be a lot more interesting if you had your peers around you. And I'm more of a visual learner, so I would feel that would be better for me.”

Lack of access to computer hardware or robust internet access is a major barrier for some workers who want to take online classes, especially those who primarily access the internet through their smartphones. A 65-year old administrative assistant, said she "did look into a program that was offered through the local college. But I didn't have a laptop at the time. So I thought, well, because it's primarily offered that way, I couldn't do that.”

A handful of younger workers expressed interest in online classes if they were offered to them, especially if they were free. A gas station assistant manager, 23, “would be interested in online classes through my work. I hear that another fast food chain offers free classes,” she said. “My cousin works for that company, and they offered her scholarships and well, she gets good money to go to school, so I’m just like, ‘maybe I need to look for a company that does that too.’” A 25-year-old grocery clerk was actively exploring taking free online classes

I don't know if my employer offers online courses specifically, but the union does. I'm actively trying to apply through the union to get into healthcare management. That's one of the things that they offer and that's something that I look forward to getting it into.…I believe you just go to their website, you sign up online, and then you just type the courses. It's just as simple as that. It's supposed to be free through them as well. So that's a great perk. For me, personally, I think it's going to be a tremendous help. I kind of messed up going to these community colleges out here, and didn’t perform as well as I should have, and I didn't discipline myself enough. I think a decent and fresh start with something new to really get into it and start from scratch would be good for me.

Workers are interested in on-the-job training, credentials, and professional skills

The mid-career and mature workers we interviewed expressed a clear preference for professionally oriented skills and credentials that can be learned relatively quickly. They showed far less interest in pursuing formal academic training and degrees.

This preference for professionally-oriented training over academic study was explained by a 29-year-old former fast food worker (featured in Jasmin’s Profile) who is interested in a short course for a commercial drivers’ license certification: “I just want to take trades. Because in my opinion, people with master's degrees can get the same job we can get through the trades. So I'm not gonna waste all my time. The more trades I have, then I can secure a good position somewhere down the line. So I'm just working on getting trades.”

Interviewees often stated a desire to acquire skills that are relevant to their jobs and allow them to keep pace with new technologies or new job responsibilities. For instance, a 32-year-old administrative assistant in a medical office shared her desire to take classes in medical billing and coding, which she finds “hard” and that are an important part of her job. She has access to these courses for free through her employer. “I think it would be beneficial to take classes, just because I know it is hard,” she said. “I have to do tons of billing and coding. They have tons of stuff like that I can take."

Most often, interviewees desire new professional skills and credentials that position them for promotions, new jobs, or income generating opportunities—in their own workplace, or elsewhere. For instance, two separate grocery workers expressed an interest in a career change to real estate. They described the change as a relatively straightforward transition, requiring learning from personal networks and connections and taking short courses to become certified. A fast food hostess described her interest in taking hospitality courses, while a young retail manager said she would like to take language classes to become more marketable for the event planning career she aspires to. A young retail manager who makes money on the side as a barber indicated an interest in training in barbering.

Financial barriers can limit access to training and credentials. Employers can help

Workers identified cost as a barrier to earning credentials that can advance their careers. Several workers expressed a desire for employers to help finance the cost of training. For instance, the 29-year-old worker training as a truck driver (featured in Jasmin’s Profile) described her strong interest in obtaining a specific type of commercial driver’s license to qualify for higher paying positions. She aspires to a job similar to that of her boyfriend’s brother, who earns $25 an hour with his license—more than twice what she earned recently in the fast food industry. With little financial stability and no savings, she does not have the means to afford the $1,700 tuition. She is trying hard to get a job at a trucking company that offers tuition benefits to cover the costs of the license. “I’ve been trying to get a job with them forever,” she said. “I call them all the time and I keep on filling out applications for different positions.”

Tuition is just one type of financial barrier that limits the pursuit of credentials and skills training. The opportunity cost of not working while training can be an even bigger obstacle than the training fees. A 55-year-old administrative assistant and former teacher described facing financial barriers when she moved to another state: “I couldn't find a teaching job. I knew everybody wanted you state certified and I was not and that would mean going back to school. And it's like I need a job, I can't afford to go to school, I need a job. So I went back to doing secretarial work.”

Work-based apprenticeships offer workers training and economic security at the same time

Some workers accessed financial support through their employers for training through workplace-sponsored apprenticeships. The experience of two workers with a butcher apprenticeship program illustrates the benefits to workers of training full time in the workplace while maintaining financial stability by earning a salary (see box below).

Apprenticeships like the ones described by Nathan and Tyler offer a workforce approach with proven results that can simultaneously address workers’ need for economic stability and enhanced access to opportunity and skills. Combining paid, on-the-job training with structured learning, apprenticeships have been successfully deployed in skilled trades and are expanding to other industries.¹ Our colleagues in the Center for Education and Skills have identified community colleges as especially well positioned to increase the number of high-quality apprenticeship opportunities and to scale them to growing industries like healthcare, IT, advanced manufacturing and business.² But despite their proven benefits and strong bipartisan support for expanding their numbers,³ apprenticeships today bring opportunity to a small fraction of the workforce. In 2018, there were 585,000 apprenticeships.⁴

Workers reported uneven access to learning opportunities at work

Work-based learning and employer-funded training match many workers’ preference for convenient, affordable and quick learning opportunities. However, workers reported uneven access to learning opportunities at work.

The clerical and administrative workers we interviewed pointed to substantial training resources at their disposal while on the job that helps them learn and keep pace with new technology and software programs introduced at work. A 58-year-old administrative assistant said, “there’s lots of training. Every time they upgrade the system to something new, we get training. Everything is from video. They might have a half hour get together with everyone to explain things, but all the training is online.” A county information clerk, 40, said, “I’ve enjoyed our internal class offerings. They are web-based and we have some in person. If you complete a track you’ll get a certification.”

While many clerical and administrative workers described access to job-related trainings, fewer workers had access through their employer to training and studies for professional development that is not directly related to their jobs. An administrative assistant, 58, said, “they don’t provide us with anything for general or personal growth, but if you want to improve your skills on different software and it’s related to work, we get that for free.”

When fast food, grocery, and retail workers described training in their workplaces, they typically referred to training for new positions as they were moving into a different role. For instance, an employee might undergo training to start a job as a bookkeeper or become a manager or learn how to work the cash register or fulfill online orders. Few described resources for continuous learning and digital skill development. Several workers had access to inexpensive or free online classes through their employer, but none of the workers used them. They shared that this educational benefit did not match their needs or preferences.

Meeting the learning and training needs of workers will require fresh thinking

The preferences of many mid-career and older working adults are clear: they want more specific, job-relevant skills, and not a college degree. While workers say they want short-term training targeted toward specific employment, traditional higher education still captures the lion’s share of funding and resources. Short-term credentials and offerings have proliferated, but without consistent quality assurances and accountability, and less clear outcomes compared to traditional higher education.⁵

The question for policymakers is how to deliver the kind of training that meets the needs, preferences, and constraints of students, but also with sufficient quality to deliver learning and employment outcomes for the workers who need them. Also, how should this training be financed? Several states are experimenting with “lifelong learning accounts” to help workers fund training throughout their careers,⁶ where tax-free contributions from individuals are matched by government contributions and could also include employer contributions.

Meeting the learning and training needs of low-wage workers facing economic precarity and time constraints requires fresh thinking, systemic reform and more funding. Practitioners and policymakers should consider these constraints when designing training and learning opportunities. Policymakers should explore incentives for business to expand and improve training and learning opportunities for workers on the job, especially for lower-wage workers who often benefit least from investments in employer training.