Workforce - Workplace Literacy

A Bilingual Approach to Workforce Adult Literacy

Reinventing ESL models to meet the needs of Texas workers.

For over a decade, Texas workers have been challenged by layoffs in the manufacturing sector, particularly in the garment industry that once employed tens of thousands along the Texas/Mexico border. These workers face enormous reemployment challenges due to the relative lack of English proficiency and the limited transferability of workplace skills from the garment industry. The common educational profile of the dislocated garment worker on the border is a monolingual Spanish speaker with two to six years of formal schooling in Mexico.¹ Many are illiterate in Spanish—few are fluent in English.

Under the Trade Act, these workers are eligible for time-limited income support and training funds, including ABE services. Under time constraints to become retrained and to reenter the job market, these workers require intensive, vocationally relevant ABE services. Current ABE and vocational training programs are modeled on the sequential development of skills: first ESL, then GED, and finally English-based vocational training. This model has “not met the needs of …Spanish-speaking…middle-aged population(s).”² Without the option of a different service delivery design, thousands of dislocated workers have expended their Trade Act support without acquiring the skills necessary to become reemployed or to enter occupational skills training programs.

To address the challenge, the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) has encouraged and funded the development of programs that utilize an integrated (English literacy and vocational training) bilingual (English language learning supported by the native language) program model. In this model, students build conceptual understanding in their native language—for example, how a computer operates, or how to draw blood from a patient in a nursing program—and concurrently develop the English literacy skills necessary to perform tasks on the job and to pass certification tests.

As part of House Bill 2593 (77th Texas Legislature), TWC funded the AdEdge Computer Training Center in El Paso with a $100,000 grant to retrain dislocated workers using an integrated, bilingual curriculum. AdEdge’s approach integrated technology, English literacy, and employability-skill components with occupational core curricula in Computer Office Skills and Certified Nursing Assistant training. Ninety-two students received intensive GED remediation and ESL instruction that tested the strength of the integrated, bilingual curriculum model to quickly develop workplace and English literacy skills. A consortium of local employers ensured that the AdEdge curriculum matched the skill needs of available jobs.

The curriculum was developed using the Equipped for the Future Content Framework. Students were assessed using the CASAS and competency-based assessments. Teachers used a team-based, contextual, work-experience teaching methodology. Computer literacy was a critical component of the AdEdge curriculum. AdEdge used a bilingual computer literacy curriculum available through TWC, Éste es el botón (This is the On Button). This use of computer-assisted instruction provided students alternate ways to extend and support English literacy development as well as to learn the technology applications necessary for the workplace.

By capitalizing on the strengths students had in their native language and incorporating technology supports into the curriculum, students were able to not only complete training during the time they received Trade Act support, but they were also able to compete for jobs in the bilingual and bicultural job market of El Paso.

AdEdge achieved the following results during the pilot:

• AdEdge significantly exceed their enrollment target of 60. Ninety-two individuals were enrolled.
• Retention/graduation rate was 88 percent.
• Of the 55 nursing assistant students enrolled, 52 passed the state exam in English and received their Texas certification.
• Fifty-eight percent obtained jobs; 33 others were in the job search phase at the end of the demonstration.
• Sixty-eight students enrolled without a high school diploma or GED, and 84 percent of these students obtained a GED.
• Ninety percent of those taking the GED passed.

“I am proud to go to work now…I had good training and they taught us English. I think it’s just as demanding as my old job, but more rewarding — and I get more pay, too,”³ said pilot participant Maria González, 39, who was hired by Regent Care Center, one of the employer partners in the pilot. Regent Care Center hired 10 former displaced workers and was excited about the prospect of hiring future graduates Carol Stock, administrator for Regent Care Center, reported at the time: “There is a difference in the students that come from (AdEdge)…. The students are helped by their instructors and it shows. It’s a good program.”⁴

There is a misconception within the adult education community that workforce skills and basic academic skills are different. The AdEdge pilot helped dispel this myth. Customer service skills learned in an Office Technology Program, or patient care communication learned in a Nursing Assistant class, directly reflect the skills adults need to navigate and interact in their communities or as family members. Work-relevant approaches to ABE result in a high degree of language transferability while ensuring the development of occupation-specific language needed to get hired. Students see an immediate application of what they are learning — in terms of helping them become employed or better employed — thus increasing their motivation to learn. AdEdge demonstrated that a bilingual, technology-rich solution for training Spanish-speaking workers results in impressive outcomes.