The three-year grants, announced by Jobs for the Future, are part of Accelerating Opportunity: A Breaking Through Initiative supported by a strategic partnership of five of the nation's leading philanthropies.

Nationally, over 26 million adults lack a high school diploma. While just over 2.5 million of these individuals are enrolled in adult basic education programs, many leave after a semester or two, and only 3 percent actually earn a postsecondary credential. In North Carolina alone there are over one million adults with low literacy, and it is predicted that by 2018, 59 percent of all jobs in the state will require workers with some form of postsecondary credentials. This will only exacerbate the difficulty N.C. employers report in finding qualified workers who can fill skilled positions