It’s rough out there for job seekers right now – but there are good jobs and employers looking to hire in California, if you have the right skills.
In fact, companies face a labor shortage and hiring challenge for upwardly mobile positions, and it’s predicted to get worse. Companies need to find and hire the right workers if they’re going to keep growing.
“This is a crisis point,” an article in Politico written by Boston University professor Scott Solberg noted. “We have to have a national conversation about how we’re going to elevate career readiness, because it’s all about economic competitiveness.”
“Nationwide,” a 2025 report from Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce said, “there is an annual shortage of nearly 712,000 certificates and associate’s degrees aligned with high-paying middle-skills occupations, projected to last until at least 2032.”
The study’s lead author added: “Credential shortages are troubling because the U.S. is in dire need of qualified workers to keep our infrastructure intact, our communities safe, and our industries at the forefront of innovation.”
A new report from California Competes has a solution: California has 6.4 million adults who are looking for economic mobility but lack the credentials, like a college degree or certificate aligned with position needs, to fill those jobs. Connecting these workers to the skills they need to get the jobs waiting to be filled can keep California’s economy thriving for decades to come.
Appropriately, the report is called: “Untapped Opportunity.”
“California’s economic future, and the prosperity of its residents, depends on whether more adults 25 years and older can enroll in and complete postsecondary education.” The report notes. But right now the trend is moving in the opposite direction. “The number of high school graduates is starting to drop, and the college enrollment rate continues to decline.”
However, “there is an enormous untapped opportunity to reverse the impending shortage of college-educated workers while alleviating poverty and boosting prosperity: California should expand the college attainment of the 6.4 million California adults who are of prime working age (25–54) and have a high school diploma but no college degree. To accomplish this, however, the state’s higher education system will have to change to better serve this population.”
Who They Are
According to California Competes, “potential graduates” come from all across California, and are part of every community. Their research shows that:
- Nearly half of California’s potential graduates have attended college previously but did not complete their degree. They bring prior learning and experience that higher education institutions could better recognize and build upon.
- Most are already active in the workforce, and employed full time, and many work in service and retail occupations. Their jobs often involve unpredictable schedules, fluctuating hours, and limited flexibility, conditions that can make it difficult to attend classes regularly.
- They have significant financial constraints. Nearly half of them live in households earning less than a living wage.
- Many are supporting families. More than 40 percent of potential graduates are parents.
- They reflect California’s diversity. Nearly half are Latinx, predominantly of Mexican heritage, and most are people of color.
- Geography matters. Many potential graduates live in inland and rural regions where residents have fewer nearby college options and may face transportation, broadband, and program-availability barriers.
In addition, almost 200,000 potential graduates are military veterans whose experience and prior learning may not be fully recognized or easily translated into college credit and credentials.
How We Can Help
California Competes shows that there are a series of steps the state and its higher education system can take to support most, if not all, of them. Specifically:
- Expanding high-quality online and hybrid instruction so working adults can participate without being constrained by traditional class times or lengthy commutes.
- Developing competency-based programs that allow students to progress by demonstrating what they know and can do, including knowledge gained through employment, military service, and other life experiences.
- Simplifying reenrollment and credit transfer for adults who previously attended college, including clearer processes for retrieving transcripts, evaluating prior coursework, and applying credits toward a credential.
- Awarding credit for prior learning so adults do not have to repeat material they have already mastered or spend additional time and money earning credits for knowledge they already possess.
- Improving access to financial aid and basic needs support by accounting for the full costs adults face, simplifying application processes, and connecting students with available public benefits and institutional resources.
- Strengthening support for student parents through childcare, family-responsive scheduling, dependent-care allowances, priority registration, and clearer access to campus and community resources.
- Better serving multilingual learners by integrating English-language development, adult basic education, and college-level coursework rather than requiring students to complete long sequences before entering a degree pathway.
- Reducing geographic and transportation barriers by assessing transportation to campus, offering free or discounted transit passes if warranted, and ensuring adequate online offerings and services.
- Creating welcoming campuses for veterans and improving the recognition of military training, experience, and previously earned credits.
Proving It Works
This isn’t just a theory, or even data points – there is proof that what California Competes is advocating for works.
Calbright College was developed by the California state legislature in 2018, and was designed to support California’s “stranded workers” – adults who have the drive ability to improve their careers, but who are stuck without a college degree or the ability to access one. Calbright’s mission is to make the benefits of a college education accessible to this population specifically, and to all Californians generally, researching, implementing, and iterating on what works, then sharing it with the whole California Community College system.
Calbright runs on most of the approaches the “Untapped Opportunity” report recommends. The College is entirely online, making it accessible to everyone statewide. For those who don’t have access to the technology they need to attend, Calbright loans laptops and wifi hot spots, free of charge. It uses a Competency-Based Education model, which allows students to study on their own time, at their own pace, around their schedules. It eliminates most of the red tape involved in admissions, and is currently free for all Californians ages 18 and over with a high school diploma or GED, so no financial aid forms are required and there is no economic hardship to apply. No one who attends Calbright will go into debt to pay for their education. Calbright’s assessment system recognizes the skills and talents students already have, and they do not have to sit in class studying skills they can demonstrate they’ve mastered.
Now a fully accredited college, Calbright’s credits are transferable to conventional college systems.
Calbright is reaching the exact population California Competes says is an untapped resource for the state’s economic future – and the program works. On average, students who complete the program see a significant benefit to their careers, including higher income, and say they gain significant skills.
This is why California Competes’ Untapped Opportunity report isn’t just showing us a road map to a better California economy: It’s a call to action for the state’s economic future.
