Whether they invest in adult education to expand their employee pipeline or for philanthropic reasons, many companies report positive results from their community partnerships.  Although it is difficult at present to quantify the benefits of offering basic skills training to employees and engaging in corporate philanthropy, there are tools available to help businesses calculate their return on investment (ROI), for example, the Business Value Assessment Toolkit, available at http://www.aspenwsi.org/BVAToolkit.asp.

In addition, the businesses interviewed for Working Together described the following benefits from collaborating with adult education providers to expand their employee pipeline: 

• Assistance with worker training and education needs;
• Customized training curriculum to meet industry standards;
• Reliable information about the skills of prospective and incumbent employees;
• Access to qualified job seekers;
• Improved employee safety;
• Improved employee morale, job satisfaction, and retention;
• Better communication throughout the company;
• Improved work quality and customer service;
• Expansion of current and potential customer base; and
• Increased competitiveness.