The California EDGE Coalition was launched in 2006. Stakeholders from business, labor, community colleges, workforce boards and social justice organizations came together to forge a vision of California’s future based on a skilled workforce and a broadly-shared prosperity. A gubernatorial election was underway and there were strong, organized advocates for K-12 education and the four-year colleges, but little attention to career technical education that led to jobs that provide millions of workers a doorway into the middle class.

The product of these meetings was a reform agenda – Keeping California Competitive, Creating Opportunity – that was ultimately endorsed by over a hundred business and organizations. We agreed that over the coming decades, California stands at a historic crossroad. The highly-credentialed baby boom generation will be retiring and, unless we are proactive, the replacement workers will have lower levels of educational attainment and be unprepared for the jobs of the future. We called on the Governor and Legislature to lead a strategic effort to forge California’s impressive education and training infrastructure into an integrated system of skill development that addresses the needs of all California workers and employers.

In the more than a decade since its formation, EDGE has focused on improving California’s system of workforce education and training and removing the serious barriers that prevent so many Californians from getting the skills they need to succeed in the labor market. California has made progress since we first came together. There is now widespread recognition that despite the state’s historic commitment to higher education, too few students achieve degrees, certificates, or transfer and many low-skilled working adults have limited access to skill-development opportunities. Career education that had once received limited recognition and insufficient financial support is increasingly being recognized as an important component of postsecondary education.