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

Training Readiness: A Pathway to Sustainable Alignment of Adult Education and Higher Education

Vocational English as a Second Language (VESL)

A number of Vocational English as a Second Language (VESL) models have been put forward recently in an effort to address the demand by employers for workers that meet their standards and requirements for employability. These include models that use two teachers, one responsible for language training and the other responsible for skills training, in the same classroom. Others link traditional ESL classes to skills training as a support service and occur during the skill training period but separately from the skills training. Both of these models have significant drawbacks regarding expense, duplication of funding, and conflicting performance measures—not to mention the logistics of managing faculty, curriculum and scheduling of such exploratory efforts. Complicating further the advancement of training for second language learners are these governmental restrictions placed on publicly funded post-secondary institutions.

1. Publicly funded Adult Education programs are prohibited from delivering instruction in any language other than English.
2. Publicly funded post-secondary semester credit education, excluding foreign language course work obviously, must also generally be delivered using an English only model.
3. Publicly funded Adult Education programs may deliver basic education and ESL only and are prohibited from delivering skill training.
4. Publicly funded educational institutions may not “double dip” funding source by reporting student VESL activity that occurs simultane- ously such as when skills and language train- ing are taught by two teachers in the same classroom.

These restrictions are real but they are not insurmountable, and creative training service providers across the country are crafting VESL models that meet the intent and letter of the law while successfully accelerating and compressing the training experience of second language learners.

Training Readiness

Much has been written about college readiness but little if any notice has been given to methods for engaging second language learners in skill training programs. More scarce still, are financially viable models that open skill training to second language learners. To address this situation, Houston Community College (HCC) has begun to experiment with VESL and connecting its adult education programs more closely to its occupational training programs. Two VESL models are under consideration and practice at HCC. These models are designed to be (1) financially sustainable, (2) logistically manageable and (3) capitalize on existing strengths of the institution’s training programs and partnerships.

The Independent Electrical Contractors (IEC) conducts the largest approved Apprenticeship program that is associated with the college’s workforce training department. The IEC is engaged with the HCC Adult Education program to explore a readiness model that adapts the basic IEC training curriculum for English language learning purposes. The college’s faculty, paid by the Adult Education program, teaches second language learners to speak, read, write and understand English based in the context of the IEC basic electrician training curriculum. The college faculty does not teach electrical concepts or skills associated with electrical craft. Students must still complete the IEC skill training curricula under the guidance of IEC faculty, but because of their VESL experience, the students are more likely to be successful because of their increased familiarity with the IEC curriculum and because of their improved English proficiency. This Training Readiness model differs from traditional workplace literacy because it helps second language workers enter and be more successful in their organization’s training opportunities and does not simply train them to communicate more effectively in English using the organization’s environmental text. This model is highly sustainable because it complies with the restrictions on training providers described earlier and connects a population in need of ESL with Adult Education services. This model can result in a high retention rate that benefits the Adult Education program and improves the capacity of the IEC to attract and train electrician apprenticeship candidates.

HCC is also engaging its traditional training program in a VESL model that connects Adult Education ESL services to its workforce training programs. At the HCC Eastside Campus, the Adult Education program is collaborating to improve the training readiness and success of the college’s Cosmetology students who are second language learners. Unlike the IEC model, the same college Cosmetology faculty teach both skill training and ESL. Like the IEC model, the skill training and VESL occur at separate times. Like the IEC model, the ESL curriculum is delivered in a skill training based context but no Cosmetology skills are taught during the student’s VESL experience. This model has an added benefit for the Cosmetology students in that they accumulate required clock hours for licensure even when attending VESL classes. All VESL hours are reported only to Texas Education Agency for adult education funding purposes, and all Cosmetology skill training hours are reported only to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. Cosmetology faculty agree to be trained as ESL instructors and meet the requirements for professional development and teacher qualification.

To meet their desperate demand for workers, employers are modifying significantly their requirements for English language proficiency and moving toward hiring more bilingual frontline supervisors. To capitalize on this demand for workers, community colleges are exploring new ways to open access to training programs for second language learners. VESL has shown to be an effective method of increasing the pool of candidates for the workplace, and the enthusiasm expressed by both the Independent Electrical Contractors and HCC Cosmetology program for VESL clearly points to the potential for expansion of these models to additional training programs at the Houston Community College and other training institutions.

David Joost is the Director of Adult Education Programs at Houston Community College. He can be reached at david.joost@hccs.edu or (713) 718-8379.