A critical but overlooked skills gap is undermining U.S. business. Here’s how to close it.

Summary

This opinion piece from Tammy Thieman (director of Career Choice at Amazon) argues that language skills — particularly English proficiency for adult learners and multilingual capability more broadly — are a major but neglected workforce competency. While companies ramp up technical, digital and soft-skills training, language training often gets left out despite strong employer demand: nine in ten firms rely on non-English language skills and one-third report a language gap today. Thieman showcases Amazon’s Career Choice, which offers career-aligned, mobile-first English instruction and reports strong worker outcomes (notably faster work, improved skills and greater confidence). The article urges employers to embed contextualised language programmes into talent strategy to unlock underused adult learners and address labour shortages.

Key Points

About 70% of U.S. corporate leaders say skills shortages are harming innovation and productivity.
Nine in ten employers rely on workers with language skills beyond English; nearly 60% expect demand for foreign languages to rise.
One-third of employers report a current language skills gap; adult English learners represent ~1 in 10 working-age adults in the U.S.
Only ~4% of adult English learners currently have access to English instruction — signalling a large untapped talent pool.
Amazon’s Career Choice offers career-aligned, mobile-first English training; employees using the tools reported time savings (93%), improved job skills (89%) and greater confidence (92%).
Contextualised, on-demand language training tied to job tasks (e.g. “English for Workplace Safety”) accelerates adult learning and yields business benefits: safety, productivity, retention and advancement.
Closing the gap requires embedding language upskilling into HR programmes and connecting training to clear career pathways.

Why should I read this?

Quick take: if you hire people, run learning & development, or worry about frontline productivity — this matters. It’s not just feel-good L&D: language training moves the needle on safety, speed and retention. The article flags a huge, low-cost win: unlock adult English learners with career-focused, mobile lessons and you get results fast. We’ve read it so you don’t have to — the stats and the Amazon example give you a practical playbook, not just theory.

Context and relevance

The piece sits at the intersection of talent strategy, diversity of talent pools and operational performance. With the U.S. labour market short roughly 1.7 million workers, employers can’t ignore any scalable source of labour — especially multilingual adults already in the workforce. Embedding contextual language training aligns with broader trends: skills-based hiring, frontline upskilling, and mobile learning. For HR leaders, L&D teams and operations managers, language programmes can be a lever for improved safety records, faster onboarding, internal mobility and lower turnover.

Author style

Punchy. Thieman writes with an employer-first lens and uses Amazon’s Career Choice as a concrete example to illustrate the business ROI of language training. For HR and talent professionals this isn’t abstract — it’s a pragmatic recommendation you can pilot or scale.