Education & upskilling

2.3.1 Key policy interventions

Access and Affordability

To overcome the primary barriers of time and cost for adult learners, especially those with low incomes, policies must focus on reducing the financial and logistical burden of participation:

• Subsidized “Earn-and-Learn” Models: Policy should heavily subsidize apprenticeships, pre-apprenticeships, and sectoral training programs that allow adults to earn a living wage while acquiring new skills. This addresses the “opportunity cost” barrier (the income lost while in school).
• Targeted Financial Aid and Stipends: Implement Pell Grant-like programs for high-quality, short-term career and technical education programs. Crucially, policies should include stipends or supplemental aid for non-tuition costs, such as childcare, transportation, and broadband access, which disproportionately prevent low-income adults from attending.
• Flexible and Modular Credentialing: Standardize policy to recognize modular, stackable credentials and micro-degrees over lengthy traditional degrees. This allows adults to quickly gain valuable, recognized skills and enter the workforce sooner, providing immediate health and financial benefits.

Integration and Relevance

Policies must ensure that educational content is directly linked to better health management and economic resilience.

• Mandatory Health and Financial Literacy Integration: Policy should require the integration of functional health literacy and financial literacy components into all basic skills and upskilling programs (e.g., English as a Second Language, vocational training).

Health Literacy: Teaching adults how to navigate healthcare systems, understand insurance/medication labels, and evaluate online health information.

Financial Literacy: Teaching retirement planning, debt management, and understanding healthcare costs.

• Promoting Digital Inclusion for Health: Implement policies that provide subsidized or free digital literacy training and devices for low-income and older adults. This is essential for accessing telehealth services, reliable health information, and participating in online education (e-learning).
• Incentivizing Health-Sector Careers: Policy should incentivize training for careers in growing health and long-term care sectors (e.g., Certified Nursing Assistants, health technicians). This provides high-demand, stable employment, benefiting the workers’ health and expanding the healthcare workforce for an aging population.

System-Level Alignment

These policies focus on ensuring seamless collaboration between education, health, and labour sectors.

• Cross-Sector Data Sharing (with Privacy): Implement policies to create data sharing between state education, labour, and public health departments, enabling policymakers to track the true long-term impact of education programs on employment, income, disease rates, and healthcare utilization.
• Aging-in-Place and Active Aging Policies: To align with the World Health Organization’s push for Active Ageing policies (WHO, 2002), community-based, non-vocational lifelong learning programs focused on cognitive stimulation, physical activity, and combating social isolation should be facilitated.
• Plain Language and Universal Design Mandates: Mandate that all publicly funded educational and health information materials (print and digital) adhere to plain language guidelines (e.g., 6th-grade reading level) and universal design principles, to tackle low literacy levels.