Tammy Thieman is director of Career Choice at Amazon.
About 70% of U.S. corporate leaders now say their companies face skills shortages that are stifling innovation, slowing productivity and weakening their bottom lines. Organizations are pouring more resources than ever into workforce development programs, offering training in technical, digital and soft skills. Yet one critical competency continues to be overlooked: language.
In today’s economy, having a workforce with strong language skills is essential for a company’s success and growth. As growing numbers of U.S. businesses operate internationally and local employers in healthcare, higher education, social services and manufacturing seek to serve increasingly diverse communities, the demand for multilingual employees has never been higher.
In fact, nine in ten U.S. employers say they rely on workers with language skills other than English and nearly 60% anticipate that their need for foreign languages will increase over the next five years. Currently, one-third of employers report a language skills gap in their workforce.
Closing this gap requires tapping into new talent pools — and few offer more potential than adult English learners, who now represent one in ten working-age adults in the U.S. With the right support, these individuals can become the multilingual workforce that businesses urgently need. As just 4% of U.S. adult English learners have access to English instruction, unlocking this untapped talent starts with investing in programs that connect workers with the language skills they need to succeed at work and that employers need to drive business outcomes.
At a time when the U.S. labor market is short 1.7 million workers, employers cannot afford to overlook the business imperative of embedding language training into their HR toolkit. A small but growing number of companies are beginning to recognize this opportunity. The reality is that businesses depend on multilingual workers just as much as workers benefit from such training. They recognize that language programs are a core component of any talent strategy. At Amazon, for example, we are investing in career-aligned English language instruction as a high-impact talent management strategy — and it’s paying off, for both the company and its workers.
Consider the story of one of our workers, Juan. Despite holding high-demand credentials and skills — including a university degree in accounting and fluency in Spanish — Juan knew that learning English was essential to advancing his career. Prior to working at Amazon, he was juggling 12-hour shifts at a factory and hours of in-person English classes each week. The combination left him exhausted — and he saw little progress toward his goals of greater English proficiency. Like many adult learners, he found that traditional, one-size-fits-all approaches to language instruction weren’t meeting his needs. His frustration mounted as he saw his potential limited by language barriers.
Then, in 2023, Juan secured a position at an Amazon fulfillment center in Tennessee. This new job came with access to Amazon’s Career Choice program, an educational and skills training initiative that pre-pays tuition for industry certifications, college courses and, crucially, career-aligned English language programs. The program eschews the basic, rote memorization that had proven so ineffective for Juan in favor of contextualized, career-aligned English instruction. Research tells us that adults learn best when content is immediately applicable to their lives and livelihoods — and learning English is no different. The content is personalized to workers’ career goals and offered on-demand via a smartphone, optimized for the busy lives of working adults.
In addition to enrolling in courses like “English for Workplace Safety,” Juan took several finance-related courses, including “English for Accounting and Finance,” and “English for Financial Services.” He also accessed live, online group classes led by certified teachers, and received support with goal setting and study skills from a multilingual coach. In just four months, Juan improved his English proficiency to an intermediate level and is well on his way to his goal of becoming a certified public accountant.
At Amazon, we have connected thousands of front-line employees like Juan with personalized, mobile-first, English upskilling. Since integrating English upskilling into our benefits package, and recently making programs like this available on day one of employment, we have encountered numerous success stories similar to Juan’s. In fact, in an annual worker survey that included more than 600 Amazon associates, we found that 93% of employees using English upskilling tools reported saving time at work. Eighty-nine percent improved their job skills, and 92% reported improved confidence in using English in the workplace.
English language training is rapidly emerging as a pivotal talent development tool, enabling businesses to unlock the full potential of an underutilized workforce. Offering robust, career-aligned language instruction isn’t just a competitive advantage — it’s essential for building a more engaged, safe and productive workforce.