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Showcase of Innovative Practice
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What's New at TWC: Upcoming Forum on Addressing
the Needs of Adults with Limited English Proficiency
by Varshna N. Jackson
The growing population of limited English Proficiency (LEP) adults is
challenging both adult educators and workforce development partners to
develop new strategies to ensure these customers benefit from education
and employment services. In an effort to address this ever-increasing
demand for quality services, the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) is sponsoring
a free, quarterly forum on the topic of serving LEP adults. The goal of
the forum is to bring together two groups - workforce partners and adult
education providers. TWC's Quarterly Forum follows on the heels of two
important events focusing on accessibility of services for LEP adults
thus proving the timeliness and urgency for collaboration.
The first event to highlight the significance of serving LEP adults was
the January 5th agreement between TWC, the Texas Education Agency (TEA),
the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB), and the Texas Workforce
Investment Council (TWIC).1 Under this agreement, agencies
are directed to engage in partnerships to strengthen the delivery of all
services to LEP adults. More specifically, Senate Bill 280, Article 5
(78th Texas Legislature), directs these agencies to collaboratively develop
demand-driven workplace literacy and basic skills curricula. Through these
curricula, literacy service providers will be connecting employers' training
needs to the employment outcomes sought by ABE students in target industries.
Additionally, the TWC Commission has provided guidance to target Spanish-speaking,
LEP adults using an integrated (ESL/technical training) approach that
capitalizes on strategically using learners' native language to more rapidly
facilitate skills acquisition while they develop the English literacy
necessary for employment. The goal of this work is to improve the employability
and employment outcomes of Spanish-speaking Texans in the following industries:
sales and service, health care, manufacturing, and construction trades.
These state level initiatives build upon trends and guidance at the Federal
level. The United States Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration
(DOL-ETA), Region IV (Dallas), recently convened a conference to address
the accessibility of services to LEP adults in the workforce network.
During the two-day "Bridging the LEP Gap in Workforce Development" conference,
special attention was focused on effective collaborations and best practices
in workforce adult literacy services for LEP adults. The best examples
of public-private collaborations came from industries in which curriculum
design and program outcomes were driven by input from three sources: employers,
literacy service providers, and employees/students. Several of those examples
came from Texas: Tarrant County Workforce Development Board, Anamarc Educational
Institute (El Paso), AdEdge Computer Training Center (El Paso), and Business
Access (Dallas).
Who is invited to attend the free TWC Quarterly Forum on LEP adults?
Employers, human resources staff, teachers, program administrators, curriculum
developers, workforce board members, workforce staff and vendors...in
other words, everyone who interacts with the LEP adult in either an educational
or workforce setting in Texas. Highlights from the upcoming conference
will include:
a) strategies for improving accessibility of services to LEP adults
in One Stop centers and education services;
b) innovative Vocational English to Speakers of Other Languages (VESOL)
approaches;
c) strategies for connecting employers' needs to curriculum development;
and
d) models of partnerships between workforce boards and literacy service
providers that meet students' employment outcome goals.
Check the TWC web site, http://www.texasworkforce.org,
for more details and to register. You may also call Anson Green at (512)
936-0642 for more information.
Footnotes
1See Green, Anson. Opportunity
2 Basic Education and Workforce Development Partners Come Together
to Plan for the Future of ABE. Literacy Links,
8(2), pgs. 1-2, 10.
About the Author
Varshna N. Jackson, M.Ed., worked for many years as a teacher trainer
and independent consultant throughout Texas. She continued to teach intermittently
in a community-based ESL program (only taking breaks to have babies!)
working with adults at all proficiency levels. She now works for TWC in
Workforce Adult Literacy concentrating on employment-focused literacy
initiatives.
 
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