Adult Education Responds to Workforce Needs With a Focus on Rider 82

Adult Education’s Role
in Texas’ Economic Growth

By definition, adult basic education is tasked with providing the foundation knowledge and skills critical to adult learners seeking employment and career path opportunities. These same skills are fundamental to the six industry clusters identified by Governor Rick Perry as part of his long-term, strategic job creation plan for Texas:

1. advanced technology and manufacturing
2. aerospace and defense
3. biotechnology and life sciences
4. information and computer technology
5. petroleum refining and chemical products
6. energy

Building on research conducted in 1990 by the Secretary’s Commission on Necessary Skills (SCANS), the National Institute for Literacy articulated the Equipped for the Future (EFF) Standards (2006) to further amplify what learners need to know and be able to do in their roles as workers, family members, and citizens. In the following illustration, EFF effectively captures the consensus reached by national stakeholders from education, business, and industry in terms of the “new basic skills and knowledge” required for the 21^st century workplace:

Used with permission of Equipped for the Future at the Center for Literacy Studies, University of Tennessee: http://eff.cls.utk.edu/workreadiness/default.htm

Texas LEARNS has drawn on this same national standards-based framework in developing the Texas Adult Education Content Standards and Benchmarks. The EFF framework is linked to the three primary roles that motivate adult learners to continue their education: their roles as family members, workers, and community members.

The common foundation for adults seeking career path opportunities and gainful employment is a desirable outcome shared by adult education as well as business and industry:

Adult educators increasingly teach language and basic skills as a means to an end - to help prepare students for success in the workforce and their communities. While many practitioners already integrate workforce and life skills into their curricula through learner-centered instructional strategies and classroom management techniques¹, the growing need demands additional attention.

When the National Association of Manufacturers surveyed its membership in 2005, nearly half of its members indicated that fifty percent of their employees lacked basic employability skills (attendance, work ethic, timeliness). Forty-six percent of those responding to the survey reported inadequate problem-solving skills among their employees, and 36 percent raised concerns about insufficient reading, writing, and communication skills.

With two-thirds of our 2020 workforce already beyond the reach of the K-12 system, we can not meet employers’ demands for a skilled workforce unless more adults are able to gain marketable post-secondary credentials². Currently, a significant percentage of the state’s workforce does not have access to a continuum of education, career pathways and employment opportunities.

The tremendous need for basic skills, improved literacy, and access to career pathways raises alarms when one examines entry-level employment opportunities in the six industry clusters identified in Governor Perry’s strategic plan for future economic growth. For example, concerns voiced by the state’s petrochemical industry provide a poignant example of what this means: the current pool of workers will not be able to fill the positions vacated by the skilled boomer generation unless career paths and opportunities to gain marketable post-secondary credentials are linked to adult education. For the first time in its history, the petrochemical industry is taking a close look at the potential of workers with limited language and literacy skills. Industry’s safety concerns and quality issues have historically barred many of these workers from accessing career path opportunities even though the industry recognizes their potential. The need to “grow their own” from within the workforce has reached critical mass among industries that rely on large numbers of low-skilled workers to support their professional level employees and advanced technology. Secondary and tertiary suppliers articulate similar concerns about “growing their own.”

Texas LEARNS continues to explore ways to assist Texas in tapping the potential of this segment of its workforce and ensuring that these individuals gain entry to the pipeline of gainful employment. Adult education in Texas plays a pivotal role in the state’s ability to increase its economic competitiveness and widening the benefits of prosperity. Its successful response to the state legislative mandate, Rider 82³, to develop industry-related curriculum for adult learners has yielded the following:

• 30 products scheduled to be complete and available for dissemination in April 2008; these products introduce adults with limited English language proficiency to the language, literacy, and employability skills entry level workers need to be able to succeed in the workplace. The products focus on three industry sectors: healthcare, manufacturing, and sales and service;
• Two guides developed to assist adult education program administrators and instructional staff in the planning and delivery of workforce-related instruction (Charting a Course: Responding to the Industry-Related Adult Basic Education Needs of the Texas Workforce, Handbooks 1 & 2);
• Opportunities for volunteer programs to receive specialized technical support in exploring partnerships and instructional options for workforce-related instruction.
• On-going development of learning strategies that address the work domain as part of the Texas Adult Education Content Standards and Benchmarks;
• SHOP TALK, a series of informative releases intended to address issues, concerns, and questions related to meeting the educational needs of Texas’ emerging, incumbent, and displaced workers;
• WorkforceLit listserv developed in collaboration with the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board and the Texas Workforce Commission.

Texas LEARNS will continue to explore entry-level employment and career path opportunities for its adult learners in the six industry clusters identified by Governor Perry. This effort includes a focus on industry-specific occupations that lend themselves to inclusion in a bridge model that integrates adult basic education and occupational training.

Barbara Tondre-El Zorkani holds an M.A. in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages from the University of Texas at San Antonio. She also holds a Developmental Education Specialist Certificate from the Kellogg Institute, Appalachian State University. Barbara has taught ESL, EFL, and VESL on four continents and specializes in workforce-related literacy issues and transition to post-secondary education and training. She is the author of a number of related publications developed for adult educators, and provides technical assistance through a Texas LEARNS contract.

1. Study Circle on Preparing Adult English Language Learners for the Workforce, November 2007, CAELA Guide for Adult ESL Trainers

2. Policies to Promote Adult Education and Post-Secondary Alignment, Strawn 2007, Center for Law and Social Policy. Prepared for the National Commission on Adult Literacy

3. 79th State Legislative Session, May 2005