business backgrounder | employment & workplace
I-BEST Practices
Washington state’s Integrated Basic Education
and Skills Training (I-BEST) program is leading
the nation in retraining and educating adults.
Daniel C. Brunell
With a retiring skilled workforce and new technologies, the nation’s adult population is ill-prepared to
fill critical high-skill, high-wage jobs. However, Washington state is leading the nation with its innovative
I-BEST program to teach both remedial and technical skills to Washington state’s adult learner population.
There is a growing crisis in the American
economy — the workforce is not educated
enough in key areas to be relevant to the new
economy.
In the United States, more than 26 million adults never graduate from high school.
Currently, 93 million Americans lack the
basic literacy skills necessary to succeed
and advance in college and the workplace.
Compounding these numbers are 1.3 million students who drop out of high school
every year, according to Jobs for the Future,
a national non-profit aiming to double the
number of low-income youth and adults who
attain postsecondary credentials by 2020.
Washington state is not immune to this
crisis. One out of every six Washingtonians
lacks the basic reading, writing and math
skills to get living-wage jobs and meet the
needs of employers, according to the Washington State Boar