During the first week of June, it was my pleasure to participate in the Colorado Community College System’s (CCCS) 2025 Chancellor’s Summit on Adult Education. As you can imagine from the title, the summit resonates with CAEL’s mission on many levels. The CCCS, a CAEL institutional member, is the largest higher education and workforce training provider in Colorado. The system is also a longtime CAEL collaborator. In fact, CAEL helped conceptualize the summit, which first took place in 2013. (It was then known as the Colorado Adult Learning Symposium.) Today, the annual summit continues to build on CAEL’s extensive legacy of working alongside Colorado institutions to support adult learners and workers.
Looking back at that inaugural summit, we can see how the CCCS has remained ahead of the curve on key issues in adult learning. Collaboration and partnerships, credit for prior learning, aligning curricula with career needs and improving access to education are a few examples from the 2013 agenda that still resonate. They are reflected in the goals that today anchor the CCCS’ 2025-2030 strategic plan: economic mobility, education for all, empowered talent, partner of choice and the power of thirteen (referencing the thirteen community colleges within the system).
One of the issues that came up during my keynote panel, “The Adult Learner Ecosystem: Collaborating to Maximize Impact,” was the rapid evolution of postsecondary education and how it requires institutions to adapt to attain those strategic goals. Learners increasingly view postsecondary credentials through a workforce lens. They need programs that align with career goals and life circumstances, and extended pathways that bridge gaps between education and employment go a long way in meeting these needs.
Offering the right mix of options for today’s learners and workers has implications from microcredentials to advanced degrees. The answer to the academic vs. practical learning debate can be a resounding “both”—if we maintain viable, mutually supportive on- and off-ramps between college and career pursuits. On the industry side, employers are becoming more engaged in education and training by partnering with institutions to develop programs that address specific workforce needs and capitalize on the potential of alternative credentials. Education benefit programs are also growing, increasingly recognized for their impact on recruiting, retention and even productivity.
The common thread that runs through these themes is linking learning and work. Such links sustain thriving intersections between education and employment that go beyond merely meeting learners where they are and ensure they get to where they aspire to be. In Colorado, Governor Polis’s recent Executive Order D 2025 006 exemplifies this commitment, directing key state agencies to collaboratively reimagine the postsecondary talent development system. It aims to foster seamless, learner-centered pathways to in-demand careers, reduce bureaucratic barriers and increase credential attainment, particularly for underserved youth, by strategically connecting education directly to employment needs.
Creating learner-centered pathways is inherent in credit for prior learning (CPL). CPL recognizes college-level learning that occurs in diverse lived experiences, including military and civilian occupations, empowering adult learners and improving access to education. It saves students time and money while boosting graduation rates—and the number of traditional (paid) credits students complete. It’s also a plus for employers. When proactively incorporated into crosswalks, CPL strengthens education benefits programs and makes them more efficient while helping academic curricula remain aligned with the latest workforce needs.
During a breakout session, “Unlocking Workforce Potential: Innovative Credit for Prior Learning Models at the Colorado Skills Institute,” Melissa Jimenez, Credit for Prior Learning Program Manager at the CCCS, highlighted how the system is growing the CPL movement. Topics included using CPL to support learner mobility, improve engagement with employers and support workforce readiness.
The session reviewed how the Colorado Skills Institute is pioneering a holistic, scalable approach to credit for prior learning, ensuring individuals receive academic recognition for the skills they gain through work experience, military service and other nontraditional pathways. Melissa shared that the thirteen community colleges within CCCS are piloting the Credit Predictor Pro tool. CAEL launched Credit Predictor Pro in 2022 to help institutions track CPL and better measure its effectiveness. The interactive tool engages students, faculty and advisors in the CPL process, including an intuitive interface that helps adult students capture experiential learning across nine dimensions.
Students can also upload documents such as resumes, which Credit Predictor Pro parses against a database of documented skills. Advisors can review these inputs, make recommendations and submit them to faculty members for review and next steps on CPL options. Institutions enter faculty-approved crosswalks into Credit Predictor Pro that align exams, industry certifications and military training to specific courses. The system makes it easy for students to document their experiential learning and submit it for potential matches to academic credit. Throughout the CPL process, students can log into Credit Predictor Pro to track the progress of their CPL credit opportunities.
The system’s colleges also have access to Credit Predictor Standard, which is offered free to all CAEL institutional members as a membership benefit. Credit Predictor Standard provides a real-time estimate of the time and money CPL could save students at their prospective institution. Credit Predictor Standard is used as a CPL awareness tool for recruiting potential students. If a student is a good candidate for CPL based on their Credit Predictor Standard answers, a college advisor can invite the student to complete the Credit Predictor Pro and fully detail their experiential learning, whether its source is language fluency, informal learning, workplace training and industry certifications, or military experience.
On the topic of military-connected learners, my colleague Doug Heckman also had the opportunity to discuss timely and relevant topics during the summit. He presented a session about CAEL’s Military Community of Practice. The community of practice regularly convenes CAEL members to scale individual and institutional impact in supporting military-connected individuals, especially those transitioning to civilian education and careers. Continuous networking at the CAEL Member Hub complements the community of practice’s in-person and virtual meetings, fostering an ongoing dialogue on best practices and forging key connections throughout the workforce ecosystem.
Any CAEL member is eligible to join the Military Community of Practice and can sign up to do so at cael.org. The group will next convene virtually on July 30, 2025, from 1 to 2 p.m. ET. In the meantime, members can find complete recordings of previous meetings, along with details about future meetings, at CAEL’s Member Hub.
On behalf of Doug and everyone at CAEL, it was a pleasure to contribute to the Chancellor’s Summit on Adult Education. It’s been an even greater pleasure to help the CCCS scale its capacity around CPL and more importantly its longstanding impact on adult learner success.
For more information on how to activate your Credit Predictor Standard access or to upgrade to Credit Predictor Pro, contact Scott Campbell at scampbell@cael.org.
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