Enabling people with English language skills is key to integration, according to Gregg Levin, CEO, EnGen – an online platform that provides non-English speaking adults with workforce readiness skills.

“They are trying to make a life for themselves in the U.S. Not having a mastery of English in either a specific area of desire or want, or in general is a major inhibitor to their ability to earn academic credentials, gain employment, be promoted within an employer,” says Levin.

“It really is a foundationally critical skill for folks to realize their full potential in the United States.”

WorkingNation sat down with Levin at the ASU+GSV Summit in San Diego.

He notes the platform added languages – Dari and Pashto – in response to the recent influx of refugees from Afghanistan. He expects EnGen will also be addressing language skills for arrivals from Ukraine.

Levin says employers are increasingly providing language learning to their workers. “Employers are leaning into English as a benefit because there’s such stress in the system to find and retain quality workers at a frontline worker-level. When this is made available to workers, they often retain at a much higher rate than the general population.”

Learn more about EnGen.