Workforce - Workplace Literacy

TANF JOB READINESS WORKSHOP
(An Overwhelming Success)

The partnering with the Seguin Texas Workforce Center to pilot a two-week job readiness workshop for TANF clients was an overwhelming success. Crystal Bearley, Center Manager for the Seguin Workforce Center, contacted Christia Moore, Director for the Comal, Guadalupe and Kendall Counties Adult Education Cooperative, in May seeking a classroom to rent. “Our office had been displaced for months due to a fire in December,” said Ms. Bearley, “and my staff needed a place to hold this workshop. Before I knew it Christia was asking me, ‘Have you ever thought about adding an academic component to your workshops? We can provide the teacher and enhance the job readiness training by integrating academics into the curriculum.’ The rest was history! The two-week pilot proved to be only the beginning of many more in the future!”

Under the direction of the Seguin Workforce Center staff and the Office of Adult Education, teaching the academic component of Reading, Writing and Math, was Rose Locke, Seguin’s GED daytime instructor. Instruction also included resume writing, mock interviews, banking and financial planning, anger management, drug and alcohol awareness (DARE program), a site visit to Texas Lutheran University, and the grand finale—a $100 shopping spree to the local Seguin Walmart. The students were administered a baseline TABE assessment at the beginning of the program, and were administered a progress test after 75 hours of instruction. All the students gained at least one functioning level in all three subject areas, but many gained two or more levels.

At the request of the Texas Workforce Commission, Ms. Bearley and Ms. Moore were invited to present at the Texas Workforce Commission’s Quarterly Forum held in Austin July 27-29, 2004, and was also presented at the National TWC Conference held in Grapevine, November 17-19. “This is truly an honor to be asked by our State Commissioners to present at the State and National Workforce conferences,” says Ms. Moore.