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

Module Three: Facilitating a Team of Stakeholders to Provide a Continuum of Services

Additional Tips and Resources…

Timely access to postsecondary education and training opportunities is often restricted by eligibility criteria and funding constraints that can discourage even the most determined adult learner. Success in planning, implementing, and sustaining educational responses to the needs of local business and industry requires adult educators and their partners to re-define their roles. Adult education can serve as a catalyst to extend partnerships and ensure access to the continuum of services needed by Texas workers.

In addition to the resources cited at the beginning and throughout this handbook, the following describe additional tools that can assist adult educators in preparing for dialogue with business and industry as well as the local workforce development network:

1. Planning Literacy and Language Services For Texas’ Limited English Proficient Workers: The Devil is in the Details (Tondre, 2001). This field guide was developed for the Texas Workforce Commission in response to the dilemma faced by communities serving large numbers of displaced or dislocated workers. Border communities were the hardest hit, but since then, other communities have experienced similar challenges. The guide includes a matrix (handout #2 in the guide itself) that describes steps to bringing a team of stakeholders together to plan, implement, and sustain effective workforce education initiatives. The matrix describes the action to be taken, the parties needing to take the lead, and suggested handouts, most of which are still applicable, depending on the population being targeted.

   The field guide is available online and can be downloaded from TCALL’s website: Planning Literacy and Language Services for Texas' Limited English Proficient Workers: The Devil is in the Details . It is also available on the Texas Workforce Commission website in a PDF version. [Download Adobe® Acrobat® Reader]

2. An LEP Handbook, being developed with funding from the Texas Workforce Commission, is intended as a resource for local workforce development boards and staff. The stated goal: to improve the reemployment needs of Spanish-speaking displaced workers and other customers with limited English proficiency. The handbook includes four modules: effective intake and counseling practices; orientation to non-traditional occupations for women; a “score card” designed to assist local boards in developing effective requests for proposals that address the needs of limited English proficient individuals; and a tool to help local boards identify appropriate assessment instruments for measuring competencies, including English literacy, communication skills, vocational skills, and employability. When complete, the handbook will be accessible at TWC’s website http://www.texasworkforce.org/svcs/adultlit/adultlit_hp.html

A cautionary note: Adult educators serving on their local workforce development boards should be prepared to assist with the local interpretation of this handbook.Concerns about the potential for misinterpretation of the “score card” have been voiced by adult basic and post secondary education/training providers across the state. Local boards rating education and training service providers’ capacity to provide vocational skills training as “strong” or “weak” must take into consideration gaps in partnerships and funding.

3. A Survey of Selected Work Readiness Certificates and Credentials. Recently Jobs for the Future (Rey-Alicea and Scott, 2007) published a review of five selected work readiness certificates / credentials that have emerged in recent years. The five are representative of a diverse range of such certificates / credentials in terms of target population and certification requirements. The report highlights the benefits and costs associated with each, as well as issues that stakeholders should consider in determining if any of these approaches would benefit a state’s unique demographics, economy, and political landscape. The full report, A Survey of Selected Work Readiness Certificates and Credentials is available online.

While Texas has not adopted or endorsed any of the products included in the report, Texas LEARNS continues to conduct its own review of certificates/credentials. The National Work Readiness Credential in particular, which was originally developed in response to the Equipped for the Future Content Standards (EFF) and the EFF Worker Role Map, has been utilized to inform the Texas Content Standards and their applicability to adult learners’ workforce-related needs. While this utilization is not an endorsement, adult educators involved in the development of the state’s content standards found its language easy to navigate because of its EFF origins. Adult education directors may find the same language a useful basis for dialogue with workforce partners and post secondary institutions.

Like other credentials and certificates of this nature, the National Work Readiness Credential focuses on a cross-industry foundation of work-ready skills and is not specific to any occupation. Building on ten years of research, EFF developed a profile of the basic skills and knowledge needed to successfully perform entry-level work. The credential is intended to help learners quantify their work readiness and eligibility to join a pool of qualified individuals who are ready for job-specific technical training. For many learners, a work readiness credential or certificate could provide a “mid-level” certification linked to the knowledge and skills necessary to succeed in the workplace. For out-of-school youth and adults who are a long way from earning their GED diploma, it may represent an explicit picture of work-related skills and knowledge already attained.