ABSTRACT
The purpose of this article is to offer insight to adult educators who are interested in creating new opportunity structures in a global society that has grown more reliant on labor market participation for individual development, social integration, and the allocation of resources among nations and citizens. This shift has been accompanied by a widening income gap between rich and poor worldwide (OECD, 2015). Although many policymakers attribute the spike in inequality to a growing education and skills gap (UNESCO, 2016), some researchers (Gazier & Gautié, 2009; St. Clair, 2015) argue that by locating the problem in individual proficiency deficiencies, the impact of significant structural shifts occurring in the global labor market are overlooked. These competing views suggest the need for a more robust understanding of the dynamic links among education, proficiency, and labor market outcomes in the global economy and the implications for the growing inequality in society.
