Workforce - Workplace Literacy

Innovative Adult Education Program Launched
(Adult Education, Local Work Source Centers, and Central Texas Technology Center Partner)

A new program called “Hands of Serve Prepare a Dedicated Texas Work Force” was unveiled August 5, 2004, at the Central Texas Technology Center located near the New Braunfels Airport, New Braunfels, Texas.

The innovative program is a partnership between the Comal, Guadalupe and Kendall Counties Adult Education Cooperative, the New Braunfels and Seguin Texas WorkSource Centers and the Central Texas Technology Center, Alamo Community College District. Attending the special ceremony were Sen. Jeff Wentworth; Texas Workforce Commission Chair Diane Rath; Texas Workforce Commission Commissioner Ron Lehman; Texas LEARNS State Director Joanie Rethlake and Texas LEARNS Assistant Director for Professional Development Janell Baker; ACCD Vice-Chancellor Dr. Federico Zaragoza; New Braunfels Mayor Adam Cork; Seguin Mayor Betty Ann Matthies; District 3 Councilwoman Gale Pospisil; Comal County Pct. 2 Commissioner Jay Millikin; and superintendents and trustees from the New Braunfels, Comal, Seguin and Schertz-Cibilo-Universal City school districts.

Beginning this fall, the Central Texas Technology Center partnered with the Comal, Guadalupe and Kendall Counties Adult Education Cooperative, to offer an innovative approach to the delivery of GED and ESL curriculum. Included in this partnership were the New Braunfels and Seguin Texas WorkSource Centers.

Christia Moore, the Director of Adult Education in the tri-county cooperative, said the program will be a unique education model because the classes will blend industry-based terminology into the academic curriculum. Classroom instruction for FLEX I (August 23 through October 15) GED classes included manufacturing and construction trades terminology; and the ESL classes focused on medical-based terminology. While students learn to read, write and speak the English language, they will also learn a health services job skill; and the students preparing for the GED examination will focus on workplace skills in the areas of manufacturing and construction trades. As the students go through the core subjects of math, reading and writing, [the instructors] weave that type of terminology into the curriculum. In addition to the academic/vocational instruction, the classes will feature career counseling and job placement assistance provided by the local workforce centers, and college placement and financial aid offered by the college placement office. The students will also take advantage of the CTTC computer labs to learn computer basics.

Starting FLEX II (October 18 through December 12), manufacturing ESL instruction was added to the medical-based ESL program. The curriculum was customized at the request of a local plastics manufacturer who contacted Rusty Brockman, Director of Economic Development for the Greater New Braunfels Chamber of Commerce; Mike Morphew, Director of the CTTC; and Christia Moore, Director of Adult Education, regarding what they (the manufacturer) could do to help the company’s nearly 50 percent English deficient employees improve their English language skills as well as provide job-specific instruction that would help them perform their current duties as well as help them advance to other positions.

An idea that was a mere spark in March is now a flame burning brightly. Currently the program is serving 60 medical-based ESL (M-ESL) and manufacturing ESL students and 40 Industry- Based GED (I-GED) students. The I-GED and Medical-based and Manufacturing-based ESL classes are offered in eight-week blocks, and follow the college’s FLEX I and FLEX II sessions.

I-GED classes are offered Monday through Thursday, 9:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m., and Tuesday and Thursday evenings, 6:00 – 10:00 p.m.; and Medical-based ESL and Manufacturing ESL classes are offered Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.; and Monday evenings 4:00 – 7:00 p.m. Teachers developing the I-GED curriculum are Reda Berry, Danny Baracz, Gloria Miranda; and developing the Medical-based and Manufacturing-based ESL curriculum are Donna Zech and Annie Walker.

More and more, employment and training programs are focusing the development of curricula and services in ways that address occupations in growing industry sectors in Texas. By doing so, they focus limited state resources in a way that optimizes the prospects for the employment success on individuals. The Central Texas Technology Center was one of the first Adult Basic Education programs in the State of Texas to fully align with the industry-sector approach outlined in Senate Bill 280. Senate Bill 280 directs TEA to partner with the Texas Workforce Commission to collaboratively develop demand-driven workplace literacy and basic skills curricula aimed at assisting local workforce development boards to equip workers and job seekers with the skills necessary to compete for current and emerging jobs in Texas. The focus of this initiative was to improve the employability and employment outcomes of Spanish-speaking Texans specifically in the following demand occupations identified in Senate Bill 280: Sales and Service, Healthcare, Manufacturing, and Construction Trades. Taking it one step further, the same type of job-specific instruction has been blended into the GED preparation classes. “We needed to rethink our delivery of instruction because what we’ve been doing isn’t meeting the educational needs that our local workforce demands,” Moore said. “We need to build on what people already know and apply workforce solutions to it.” “By providing opportunities for Adult Education students to earn their high school diploma equivalency with an industry-based focus, or for LEP students to learn to speak the English language while learning job-specific terminology, will give all students the tools needed to either get a better job, advance on their current job, and/or to further their education—all of which improves one’s quality of life,” said Crystal Bearley, former Center Manager for the Seguin WorkSource Center and now Project Director for the Brazos Valley Workforce Solutions.

The vocational and technical courses offered at the CTTC focus on what the local economic development boards determined as the demand-driven occupations in the Seguin and New Braunfels areas—ironically all of which are also identified in Senate Bill 280 as the State’s high-demand occupations. In addition to earning an associate’s degree, it is the goal that all students be given the opportunity to obtain an industry-validated licensure or certification. “All entities should be applauded for not only helping to better our local economy and job market but also helping people better themselves,” said Rusty Brockman, Director of Economic Development for the Greater New Braunfels Chamber of Commerce.

The Central Texas Technology Center is able to provide this wide variety of options for its students because of the close working relationship between the local Texas WorkSource Centers, the Alamo Community College District, and other local entities that is maintained at the center. CTTC is providing the facility while Moore is coordinating the GED and ESL instruction; and the New Braunfels and Seguin WorkSource Centers have provided a One Stop WorkSource Center within the CTTC to help people develop employment skills and find or advance in a job.

By all entities collaborating, duplication of services is eliminated, and the pooling of resources, bridges and strengthens the links of all services each entity provides.

Prior to the afternoon’s ceremony on August 5, a live radio talk show, hosted by Rusty Brockman, was broadcast on KGNB 1420 Radio Station. Participating in the broadcast were Crystal Bearley, Center Manager, Seguin WorkSource Center; Ed Vallejo, Center Manager, New Braunfels WorkSource Center; Henry Hahn, New Braunfels WorkSource Center; Mike Morphew, CTTC Director; and Christia Moore, Director of Adult Education. The listeners learned about the new industry-based GED and ESL programs to be offered at the Central Texas Technology Center.

Although its doors just opened in June, the Central Texas Technology Center is doing all it can to help bolster the local work force. It currently offers 14 to 15 classes in industry, technology and academics and will be adding to its course offerings the Spring 2005 semester. Regular coursework at the centers provides basics to college students wanting to transfer to larger universities and vocational training to young people just joining the work force as well as older adults looking for a new career.

Recognizing the outstanding efforts of the local entities to partner, the CTTC, the City of New Braunfels and the City of Seguin, and the respective Chambers of Commerce, were the recipients of the very prestigious Excellence Through Innovation award sponsored by the Alamo WorkSource Development Board. These entities were recognized at the AWD’s annual awards banquet held on October 20, 2004, in San Antonio. “The Central Texas Technology Center is a workforce specialty campus of the Alamo Community College District. The CTTC actively strives to bring new and innovative programs that will promote and enhance economic development for the regional area.” Morphew said.

Diane Rath congratulated the entities responsible for the CTTC and its programs. “We salute everyone who helped make this possible,” she said. “Only a trained workforce can compete in the economy, and workforce development is a building block of economic development.”

Christia Moore is starting her second year as the Director of the Adult Education Program in Comal, Guadalupe and Kendall Counties. Prior to working with Adult Education, she has five years’ experience working as a Career and Technology Education Consultant at the secondary level. In 1996 she received the Texas Business Education Association’s Career and Technology Teacher of the Year Award for Region II, and was named Career & Technology Teacher of the Year for the Corpus Christi ISD in 1995. Ms. Moore holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Education from Bartlesville Wesleyan College in Oklahoma, a Master’s degree in Occupational Training & Development and Principal/Mid-Management Certification from Texas A&M—Corpus Christi. Working with Adult Education has truly been the highlight in her career as an educator. The support the Adult Education program has received from the Seguin and New Braunfels WorkSource Centers, the communities’ local economic development boards, and the Central Texas Technology Center, has been phenomenal. She attributes any success of the program to the support of these entities as well as the co-op’s dedicated, passionate teachers, who are the key to helping students discover themselves and bringing out the best in each one.

October 19, 2004

Dear Mrs. Moore:

I would like to thank you for letting me be first of many who will benefit from this new GED pilot program. It has changed my life in a positive way. I knew starting this journey would be an uphill battle because I am not young, and time has gone by, and now with three children and a husband and also working full-time, it has become clear that I have more than one obstacle to deal with. There is something I will tell you—taking this class has made me stronger and eager to strive for better things in life—not just to settle for what comes along, but also to achieve more. The world is out there, and I am going to reach for every little bit that’s there. This class has brought out a person I thought did not exist any more.

My teachers have been a great help. In the time I’ve been here, I have learned a lot in Mrs. Miranda’s Reading and Writing classes. We have also learned how to use the computer in many ways. She has incorporated the computer with our lessons. Mr. Baracz has made math fun. It is not my favorite subject, but now I understand it and am not so afraid. This has become a great experience for me. New horizons have opened up for me and my family. It has helped me tremendously as now I am able to help my children with their homework, and I also understand what I’m doing. Before I had trouble trying to explain something I was unsure of myself.

There are many GED programs out there, but this one has provided more opportunities to the students. I hope this encourages other people to come and experience what we are experiencing. Without you and your program, our dreams would not be coming true. It takes one person to make a difference, like you, Mrs. Miranda and Mr. Baracz, in all our lives.

Thank You,

Dora Samaniego