Increasingly, the provision of adult education (including literacy and training programs) is influenced by a rhetoric of workforce development that tasks education with closing a supposed ‘skills gap’ between the skills that workers have and what employers are looking for. This deficit model of education blames adult learners for their own condition, as well as for larger problems in the economy. In addition to arguing for broader goals for adult education, those in the field also need to question the economic premises of this rhetoric. A review of current economic conditions points to fundamental aspects of capitalism as the source of instability, which means that education and training programs have a limited ability to move large numbers of people out of poverty. For this reason, students and teachers in adult education should focus on developing structural analyses of the situation and push for substantive changes in the economy.

中文翻译：

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劳动力发展修辞与21世纪资本主义现实

成人教育（包括识字和培训计划）的提供越来越受到劳动力发展的言论的影响，这种言论要求通过缩小工人所拥有的技能与雇主所寻找的技能之间的所谓“技能差距”来进行教育。这种教育不足的模式指责成人学习者自身状况以及经济中的更大问题。除了为成人教育争取更广泛的目标外，该领域的人员还需要质疑这种言论的经济前提。对当前经济状况的回顾指出，资本主义的基本方面是不稳定的根源，这意味着教育和培训计划使大量人摆脱贫困的能力有限。为此原因，