Charting a Course: Responding to the Industry-Related
Adult Basic Education Needs of the Texas Workforce
Handbook One: Planning and Implementation Tips
for Program Planners and Administrators

Introduction

To launch a successful workforce-related educational experience, planning plays a critical role. Certainly adult education administrators and instructional staff must plan together if instruction is to respond to learners’ work-related needs. But before a response to workforce needs can be implemented, local labor market needs and partnership opportunities must be examined. Charting a Course Handbooks # 1 and # 2 are designed to help local adult education programs answer some critical questions in planning a successful initiative:

• How do we connect with businesses that may benefit from a Workplace ESL initiative?
• How do we budget for it and do we have the infrastructure to support it?
• What do we need to plan up front and how do we engage partners/ employers?
• What logistics must be taken care of before implementation?
• What does a successful Workplace ESL initiative look like?
• What if we’re not working with specific employers but trying to address workforce-related issues within our traditional ESL classes?
• What is VESL and what makes adult education’s response to Rider 82 unique?
• How do we find and prepare instructor(s) to integrate workforce-related issues into instruction?

The handbooks have been developed to assist adult educators in Texas in delivering instruction responsive to the workforce-related language, literacy, and basic skills needs of Texas’ emerging, incumbent, and displaced workers:

Handbook # 1 deals primarily with the planning process during which program administrators determine program capacity, local labor force needs, the strength of local partnerships, and the development of mutual, achievable goals and objectives. Taking up the modules of this handbook need not follow any particular sequence. For example, some may choose to study Module Three before Module Two.

Handbook # 2 focuses primarily on instructional strategies that respond to the identified needs of the workforce. It discusses simple assessment strategies that can help identify the language and basic skills needed for workplace success, as well as strategies for delivering instruction. Also addressed are the issues of confidentiality in the workplace; incorporating authentic work-related materials into instruction; and documenting changes in learners’ performance and behavior.

Materials are organized into modules. Together, these modules shape a process. However, because programs differ, adaptations can be made to address local program needs as initiatives evolve.

Unless you are already experienced in delivering workforce-related instruction, some background reading is recommended and described in the pages to follow.

Note: An inventory to customize your professional development needs is included in the appendices at the end of Handbook # 1. This can be used to help you focus your attention on those areas about which you want to learn more. A similar inventory for instructors is included in Handbook # 2.