How English Upskilling Powers the Workforce: Perspectives from U.S. Employers + Immigrant Workers

Nearly 1 in 5 U.S. workers is an immigrant, refugee, or speaker of a language other than English. If U.S. employers and workforce partners commit to more inclusive workforce development strategies, this fast growing talent pool is poised to help address acute labor shortages in essential sectors – and add an estimated $7 trillion to the U.S. economy over the next decade. 

Yet English barriers drive the systemic unemployment and underemployment of multilingual workers: The U.S. workforce system currently serves the needs of just 4% of adult English learners. 

But there’s good news: We know how to address this gap. 

A first-of-its-kind survey, fielded by EnGen with responses from nearly 2,500 adult English learners, speaks to the potential of a novel approach to English instruction – upskilling with English – to provide at-scale English instruction to the millions of adult English learners not currently served by our workforce system.

EnGen recently assembled workforce development experts – Yaron Schwartz of the Tent Partnership for Refugees, Courtney Vandiford of Whole Foods Market, and our founder, Dr. Katie Brown – in a timely conversation about the potential of at-scale English upskilling to champion multilingual talent and power the U.S. workforce, moderated by Laura Aka of WorkingNation.

Watch the full recording here:

A Contextualized, Career-Focused Approach to English Instruction 

When it comes to English instruction, not all approaches are created equal. Research shows that adults learn best when instruction is immediately applicable to their lives and livelihoods – and learning a new language, like any other skill, is no different. 

English upskilling combines industry-focused language skills with real-world career skills, giving learners an opportunity to apply their new English skills on the job – and progress faster in gaining proficiency and confidence in using their new language. 

“Truly effective language upskilling means that you’re practicing language in the context of your work. So for a grocery retailer, that means understanding and being able to speak about things like customer service, food safety, food preparation, products and ingredients, recipes…all those things,” said Vandiford, who has managed an English upskilling employee benefit program at Whole Foods Market since 2023. 

EnGen’s survey points to the potential of English upskilling to connect learners with not only new language skills, but also pathways to career mobility. A full 93% of learners improved their confidence in using English as a result of upskilling programs; 90% reported saving time at work, 85% gained in-demand digital literacy skills, and 80% reported achieving a career or social goal, like a pay raise, promotion, or improved communication with colleagues. 

“Language upskilling is more than just words and vocabulary. Language also means community. It means cooperation, things like access and inclusion. Building community and having representation in our stores that are members of the community is a big deal to us,” said Vandiford. 

Advancing Employee Recruitment and Retention 

Whole Foods Market is an example of a growing network of forward-looking companies that are committed to hiring newcomer populations, not just because it’s the right thing to do for their local communities, but also because it’s the smart thing to do for their bottom lines. 

Since its founding in 2016, the Tent Partnership for Refugees has mobilized more than 200 large companies across the U.S. – and hundreds more across the Americas and Europe – in hiring, training, and mentoring refugees. From Amazon to Blackstone to Gap, employers increasingly understand that investing in inclusive hiring practices can build more fully staffed, engaged, and productive workforces.

“They’re motivated in many cases by the humanitarian crises coming out of Afghanistan and Ukraine, really looking for a way for their business to have a social impact, but they are also really seeing the business benefits of hiring from this population. And they’re continuing to invest in solutions like addressing language barriers for this population,” said Schwartz, Director of Tent U.S. 

A full 73% of companies surveyed in research conducted by Tent and the Fiscal Policy Institute reported that refugees have lower turnover rates than the average employee. 

Strong recruitment and retention are benefits of English upskilling programs too: Whole Foods Market has seen a 19 percentage point increase in retention for employees who participate in their language upskilling programs. This matches EnGen’s own survey data, where 83% of adult English learners said they’ll likely stay with their company because English is offered as a benefit – and 89% said they’d refer a friend to their company for the same reason. 

A Holistic Approach to Workforce Development

Beyond providing upskilling for frontline workers, workforce development leaders are leveraging English upskilling to connect their employees with additional opportunities for training, credentials, and career mobility. In this case, upskilling fills both staffing and skill gaps in high-demand sectors like healthcare, manufacturing, and hospitality 

Recent immigrants are about as likely as their U.S.-born peers to have a bachelor’s or postgraduate degree, yet two million college-educated newcomers are systemically unemployed or underemployed, the result of myriad barriers, including language. 

“Language is a big barrier when you’re trying to restart your career in the U.S. You know how to be a doctor, for example, you just don’t yet have the English skills to be a doctor in the United States,” said Brown, who founded EnGen in 2020. “The work to scale English upskilling and build more inclusive, multilingual workforces doesn’t fall solely on employers: Local governments, community colleges, workforce partners all have a role to play.” 

Workforce leaders are building cross-sector partnerships that connect Internationally Trained Professionals (ITPs) – immigrants and refugees with credentials and training from their home countries – with career-focused English upskilling, along with wrap-around supports that help them translate their experiences and skills to the U.S. job market. 

Brown points to strong ITP-focused offerings at community colleges in Austin, Dallas, and Buck’s County, Pennsylvania – along with state-level English upskilling efforts in Colorado and Michigan.  

Tent, for its part, runs a mentorship program that gives refugee mentees one-on-one support on drafting resumes and cover letters, practicing interview skills, and knowing how to pitch themselves to a prospective employer. The program is structured around Employee Resource Groups (ERG) at more than 65 companies across the U.S., connecting thousands of LGBTQ refugees, Afghan refugees, Hispanic refugees, and refugee women with mentors who are employed at Tent member companies. 

“Many professionals share affinity with the population that they’re mentoring so they feel invested in supporting that population. It’s a valuable employee engagement tool,” said Schwartz. “And employees, especially Millennial and Gen Z employees, really value that and want to be working at employers that are providing them with opportunities to be supporting their communities.”

Mentorship programs provide valuable social capital that helps newcomers build local professional and social networks, often key to securing employment in the U.S. When combined with English upskilling, these supports provide benefits outside of work, too. According to EnGen’s survey, 3 in 4 learners said they could navigate life better, are more engaged with their community, and can help their family more as a result of English upskilling. 

Scaling Promising Practices

To reach more of the 96% of adult English learners not currently served by our workforce system, employers and other partners must commit to investing in at-scale approaches to champion multilingual talent. 

“Listen to your employees. Your team members will tell you what they need in a constantly evolving marketplace. To stay competitive, you can’t just depend on what you’ve always done,” said Vandiford of Whole Foods Market. “You have to be willing to take some risks, and upskilling is a differentiator and an attractor to applicants.”

Beyond investing in English upskilling programs, Tent coaches employers to implement other “low-lift” solutions that can go a long way in supporting adult English learners in the workplace. Tent collaborated with Jobs For the Future (JFF) to create a guidebook with language solutions for immigrant and refugee talent.  

“The guidebook offers companies very practical suggestions on things that they can do at all stages of the talent management cycle. Recommendations are based on insights from what other companies have actually done,” said Schwartz. 

Whether it’s English upskilling, language access strategies, or building mentorship programs, investments in immigrants, refugees, and multilingual talent offer returns that benefit both a company’s culture and bottom line. 

“Being willing to relocate your family to a new country, being willing to learn a new skill…there’s a huge amount of initiative that comes with that,” said Vandiford. “Employers have an opportunity to see that these are folks that you want to employ. These are folks that have ambition and grit and resilience that you want to participate in your workforce.” 

EnGen partners with employers, community colleges, and other workforce organizations across the U.S. to implement English upskilling programs and champion multilingual talent. See full results from our 2024 Workforce Report and learn how English upskilling can work for you: https://getengen.com/impact-2024