Employees want to grow, and most would rather do it at the company they already work for.

According to the 2026 Education Index, The Mobility Cliff: When Upskilling Alone isn’t Advancing Careers, employees are ready to build new skills. What they don't have is a clear sense of where to start, what upskilling matters, or how that learning connects to actual advancement.

The research revealed that employees are highly motivated to develop new skills and advance their careers, but many lack clear pathways, guidance, and manager support. This disconnect between learning and advancement creates what employers can think of as an internal mobility cliff where education efforts fail to translate into career growth.

Key Takeaways

• 77% of employees would stay with their current employer if clear internal advancement opportunities existed, and 79% of employees would choose employers investing in education
• 83% are motivated to build new skills to advance their careers, but 47% don't know where to start
• Employees with actively engaged managers are far more likely to advance after training: 43%, compared to 28% without that support
• Only 33% of employees have had an actual conversation about building relevant skills with their manager in the past year, despite 64% saying their manager is involved in their development

Download the 2026 Education Index to see where employees are getting stuck and what leading employers are doing to connect learning with advancement.

What is internal mobility?

Internal mobility is the process of moving employees into new roles, levels, or functions within the same organization. This includes promotions, lateral moves, cross-functional rotations, and temporary assignments. It’s a core part of how organizations retain institutional knowledge, expand their talent pool, and reduce dependence on external hiring.

What is the mobility cliff?

The internal mobility cliff describes the point where an employee’s upskilling stops translating into career movement. It shows when learning and advancement operate separately inside an organization. Strategies promoting workforce readiness like education benefits may be built to close skill gaps, but they often run disconnected from the career pathways that can promote people. And without a bridge between the two, employees can’t turn new skills into real advancement.

The Education Index data behind internal mobility

Employees struggle with internal mobility because nothing connected what they learned to what came next. They didn’t stop learning; it’s just a normal roadblock in the employee lifecycle. Here are a few things to consider from the data:

1. Employee retention depends on growth, not just pay or perks.

• Career advancement ranks as a top priority for 64% of employees right now.
• 77% of employees say they'd rather stay with their current employer if a clear career pathway to advancement exists.
• 79% would choose a job at a company that invests in continuing education over one that doesn't.

2. Employees have the motivation, but they lack direction.

• 83% of employees are motivated to build new skills for career growth, and 46% describe themselves as very motivated.
• Yet 47%, nearly half, say they don't know where to begin.
• 80% want their employer to confirm they're building the right skills, and 71% wish their employer laid out clearer steps to the next role.

3. Manager involvement is a strong opportunity for career advancement.

• Employees whose managers are actively engaged in their development are significantly more likely to advance after completing training: 43%, versus 28% for those without that engagement.
• But engagement and conversation aren't the same thing. 64% of employees describe their manager as involved, while only 33% have discussed building relevant skills with them in the past year.
• That's up from 28% in 2024, real movement, but it still leaves two out of three employees without that conversation.

What does this mean for employers?

The data points to a specific, correctable challenge rather than a broad cultural problem. Employees are already motivated and organizations are already spending on education. What's missing is the visible career pathways for advancement that connect skills to roles, and managers equipped to have the conversation, not just approve the course.

That changes where the next dollar should go. For most organizations, investing in career pathway design and manager enablement will move the needle further than expanding a course catalog that's already underused for its intended purpose.

Explore the full 2026 Education Index and discover how education benefits can strengthen retention, workforce readiness, and internal mobility.

Why does an internal mobility cliff exist?

Most organizations built their learning infrastructure and their advancement infrastructure separately, on different timelines, owned by different teams, measured against different goals. L&D optimizes for course completion. Talent management optimizes for filling open roles. Neither one owns the handoff between the two.

That handoff is exactly where the breakdown shows up in the data. Employees aren't failing to learn. 50% of employees who took a job-skill course say it helped them in their current role. But only 40% say it helped them advance, a real drop-off between building a skill and moving because of it. Without a formal connection between what someone learns and the role that learning qualifies them for, the two outcomes diverge even when the learning itself works.

Manager behavior compounds this. A manager who checks in and approves a course is involved in a general sense. Most managers do this. But a manager who sits down and connects skills to a specific next role sees nearly double the advancement rate on their teams.

What leading organizations are doing differently

Some employers are already closing this gap deliberately rather than leaving it to chance. As Mandy Berman, Bright Horizons' Chief Operating Officer of Back-Up Care and Education Advisory Services, shared in this press release:

Pairing learning with clear career pathways and manager support is what positions employees to actually turn new skills into advancement.

CVS Health and Synchrony are great examples of employers now building strategic workplace education programs that align directly with defined career pathways, rather than treating education benefits and internal mobility as separate initiatives.

What’s the next step for employers?

The 2026 Education Index highlights that access to learning isn't the constraint for internal mobility. 83% of employees are already motivated, and organizations are already investing. What's missing is the structure that carries an employee from a completed course to an actual next role: clear career pathways and managers equipped to have a real conversation about them.

Employers that build that structure are turning upskilling into internal mobility.

Put internal mobility within reach

EdAssist by Bright Horizons® helps employers connect education benefits to real career pathways, so upskilling turns internal mobility instead of just completed programs. Through workforce-aligned program design, degree and non-degree learning options, and expert coaching, EdAssist helps employees turn skill-building into the real next role.

Talk to our team to for a complimentary consultation and see what a strategic education benefits program could look like for you.

Education Index Research Methodology

Conducted online in the U.S. by The Harris Poll, June 4–8, 2026, among 3,047 adults 18 and older, including 1,496 employed full or part time. Data weighted by age, gender, region, race/ethnicity, household income, education, marital status, household size, and political affiliation. Accurate to within ±2.5 percentage points at a 95% confidence level; margin of error widens for subgroups.

Explore the full 2026 Education Index for the complete data behind the mobility cliff.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is internal mobility? Internal mobility is the process of helping employees move into new roles, grow their careers, and develop skills within an organization instead of seeking opportunities elsewhere.

What is the 2026 Education Index? It's an annual benchmark study from EdAssist by Bright Horizons®, produced in partnership with The Harris Poll, that tracks how employees build skills, pursue advancement, and experience workforce education programs. The 2026 edition surveyed 3,047 U.S. adults, including 1,496 employed adults, in June 2026.

What is the "mobility cliff"? It's the gap between building new skills and turning them into career advancement. It happens when education programs exist without a clear connection to internal roles, pathways, or manager support.

What role do managers play in employee development? The Education Index found employees with actively involved managers advance after training at nearly double the rate of those without: 43% versus 28%.

Why don't more employees have skills conversations with their managers? The data doesn't isolate a single cause, but it shows a gap between perceived involvement (64%) and actual conversation (33%), suggesting many managers may be supportive in general terms without having a structured, specific conversation about skill-building and next roles.

What are employers doing to close the mobility cliff? Some, including CVS Health and Synchrony, are building workplace education programs that intentionally align with defined career pathways, rather than running education benefits and internal mobility as separate efforts.