Charting a Course: Responding to the Industry-Related
Adult Basic Education Needs of the Texas Workforce
Handbook Two: Workplace Savy for Workforce-related Instruction
Modules #5 & 6

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Module Five: Identifying Adult Learners’ Work-Related Proficiencies and Needs

Things To Know About Industry and Partnerships…

As unemployment rates continue to fall, the value of employees increases. A welcome by-product: an increased focus on a potential employee’s attitude, work ethic, flexibility, loyalty, teamwork, and problem-solving skills. Often the ability to fit into a corporate setting and the ability to learn take precedence over an individual’s technical qualifications. Many companies believe they can teach technical skills if the potential employee possesses critical language, literacy, life and employability skills.

In 2005 – 2006, the Manufacturing Institute of the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) and Jobs for the Future (JFF) conducted a study of effective practices being used to increase the productivity of non-native speakers of English employed in manufacturing industries. The study cites successful initiatives that both promote business goals and strengthen workers’ English and technical skills. These worksite-based programs integrate technical skills training with English language instruction. Employers support the programs because they have a measurable, positive impact on the bottom line. When employers invest in helping workers improve their English language proficiency, it makes good business sense, and often productivity increases.

Nine in ten respondents to the NAM survey indicated a moderate to severe shortage of qualified, skilled production workers, including frontline workers such as machinists, operators, craft workers, distributors, and technicians. The survey included the following information:

• Employers acknowledge that they are relying increasingly on immigrants to fill these positions.
• A significant number of these workers enter the workforce with little or no English language proficiency – skills many consider crucial to the manufacturing sector’s long-term competitiveness and productivity.
• The challenge escalates for employers whose business models rely on a high quality product that requires workers who can learn new skills or learn how to operate new machinery quickly.
• These employers are less able to accommodate workers who cannot communicate in English.

For years, many publicly funded ESL providers have lacked either experience and/or interest in working with employers to provide instruction customized to business needs. Reasons include limited funding of course, but also federal regulations, a disconnect between the mission of public literacy programs and the goals of employers, the existence of already long waiting lists in many programs, and the fact that these programs believe they are doing a great job and see no need to change.

All of these reasons are legitimate. Adult education programs in Texas receive very limited state funding, and federal funds can not be used to provide any kind of occupational training, making the “integration” of ESL instruction and work skills development a difficult model for practitioners to embrace. It is also certainly true that there are long waiting lists for “free” adult education classes, oftentimes with unwieldy numbers of learners packed into existing classes. But a continued disconnect between the world of work and regular adult education classes is hard to justify. After all, adult education’s charge is to help learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to be effective citizens and community members, to contribute to their families’ well being, and to meet the demands of a changing workplace in a changing world. Currently, adult education programs are limited in their capacity to address the workforce-related instructional needs of adult learners, and too few employers have committed to a systematic, sustainable solution for their employees. Employers must view ESL instruction as a business asset essential to the firm’s profitability. Rarely do employers view “regular” or “traditional” ESL instruction as a satisfactory response to their workplace needs. Additionally, support from state and local level workforce development agencies is inconsistent and varies by region.

Rather than reinforce this stalemate, Texas LEARNS has chosen to respond to the workforce-related needs of adult learners with a number of its own initiatives, including

• research and study of the adult basic education needs of Texas’ emerging, incumbent, and displaced workers with limited English language skills;
• industry-related curricular responses to Rider 82;
• SHOP TALK – an online series that highlights promising practices and addresses issues, concerns, and questions related to meeting the adult education needs of the state’s workforce;
• the study of bridge models linking/integrating adult basic education and post secondary education and training; and
• professional development and technical assistance for adult educators delivering workforce-related instruction.

Partnerships are discussed here because they can play such an important role in instructional planning. Programs that integrate language and literacy services with jobs skills training are potential lifelines for educationally disadvantaged adults. The gap between entry-level, low wage employment and well paying jobs with career opportunities continues to widen. A critical realization by businesses and industry is their recognition that workers needed to replace the soon-to-retire baby boomers do not have the necessary skills to move into and through the pipeline and onto career path opportunities.

Industry Skills Standards: How Do They Impact Adult Education?
Industry skill standards identify what people need to know and be able to do to successfully perform work-related functions within an industry. Many industries have well defined skill standards that specify the knowledge and competencies required to perform successfully in the workplace. The standards are usually developed along a continuum, ranging from a) general work readiness skills and b) core skills or knowledge for an industry, to c) skills common to an occupational cluster and 4) specific occupational skills. The federal government has identified 16 economic sectors with some level of skills standards:

agriculture and natural resources manufacturing, installation, repairs energy and utilities communications hospitality and tourism health and social services legal and protective services property management / maintenance

mining and extraction construction transportation wholesale and retail financial services education and training business and administration research and development

Activity: Skills standards for some industry sectors are quite extensive and comprehensive. For example, the graphic representation of competencies for the advanced manufacturing industry describes nine tiers of industry-related competencies. These competencies are considered fundamental to a large number of occupations and industries, and many are already familiar to adult educators and are often addressed to some degree in many adult education classrooms.

Examine the graphic that follows and answer the following questions:

1. Which of the competencies included in Tier 1 are already addressed to some degree in your adult education classroom? Give an example for each.
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2.  
3.  
4.  

2. What other terms are sometimes used to refer to the skills in Tier 1?

 

3. What nationally recognized graphic is used in adult education and literacy circles to capture most of the competencies identified in Tiers 2 an 3? (included in handbook).

 

4. Cite two ways industry skills standards can be used by educators and workforce development professionals.
1.  
2.  

5. Cite two ways in which industry skills standards can help employers.
1.  
2.  

6. How can an understanding of industry skills standards help incumbent, emerging, and displaced employees?
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•  

Graphical Representation of the Model for Competencies in the Advanced Manufacturing Industry, High Growth Job Training Initiative, 2006. “Advanced manufacturing: is defined by the U.S. Department of Labor / Employment and Training Administration (ETA) as the use of technology or other productivity-enhancing business processes in the manufacturing enterprise and/or value-added supply chain. For additional information, see http://www.doleta.gov/sga/sga/SGA-DFA-05-07.pdf [Download Adobe® Acrobat® Reader]

For educators and workforce development professionals, these standards are helpful to

• define curriculum essentials
• achieve improved, more relevant training outcomes
• align adult basic education with post secondary education and training as well as state and local workforce development needs

For employers, skill standards can guide their training needs analysis, help them improve current training programs, and enable them to work with education and training providers to develop appropriate curricula. Employers’ requests for educational services cover a full range of topics that include the following:

• an integration of survival English with industry-related language skills that enables individuals to succeed in the workplace;
• an understanding of the critical nature of English language proficiency when it comes to job safety and communications;
• work-related math and technology skills critical across industry and business sectors;
• employment readiness skills, critical thinking and life skills such as knowing how to access and use information; problem solving and decision making skills; attention to detail; working with others, and work ethics.

For employees (incumbent, emerging, or displaced) industrial skill standards can provide guidance in planning and pursuing a career path, help individuals learn to describe their skills to employers, and identify skill areas requiring further development.

Tier 1 of the graphic describes competencies essential to all life roles in the family, community, and the workplace. Industry sometimes referred to these competencies as “soft skills”.

Tier 2 identifies critical academic competencies also likely to apply in varying degrees to all industries and occupations. For example, the level of mathematical competency required varies, depending upon the work setting (e.g., retail, health, aerospace manufacturing).

Tier 3 describes a number of the workplace traits, interpersonal, and self-management competencies also represented in Pennsylvania’s adaptation of the EFF the Foundation Skills Wheel (also included in this handbook).

There are many job opportunities in the industry clusters experiencing high growth in Texas. Three of these industry clusters are healthcare professions, manufacturing and trades, and sales and service. Each of these sectors includes occupations for which English language learners may quality, provided the opportunities to acquire employment-related language/literacy skills, work readiness skills, and pathways to occupational training are accessible.

Learners need to know that entry-level jobs are potential springboards to earning a living wage, but a strong commitment to continuing their learning has to be part of the plan. The following illustrations identify job opportunities in each sector.

Tondre, TESOL 2007

The Employer’s Critical Role

High growth industries are pressed to develop a pipeline of new workers with strong academic foundations in math, science, and language. Many employers are also looking for ways to help incumbent workers keep pace with rapid changes due to innovation and technology. Finally, employers need to replace and retain a skilled workforce expected to retire in the next ten years.

Many industrial sectors include entry-level occupations and career ladder options for which English language learners may qualify, provided they can acquire employment-related language/literacy skills, work readiness skills, and familiarity with critical occupational terminology. Bridge programs connecting adult basic education to post secondary education and training – programs that pay attention to the academic and vocational needs of second language learners – are generating increased levels of interest. These transitional components are often where the continuum of services is fractured.

Vocational English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESL or VESOL) often include a unique feature in which to engage employers. This is the addition of some kind of workplace experience, which can take any one of a number of forms. For example:

• Internships offered by employers and facilitated by local workforce development networks. These require commitments from employers as well as support services from the local workforce development network. There are both paid and unpaid work experiences, each with important benefits. Participants gain work experience, insight into the culture of the workplace, and industry-related information that can facilitate their commitment to further education and training. Employers, on the other hand, get a preview of potential employees’ work skills, plus the opportunity to learn about English language learners’ work ethic and ambitions. A reference from an employer – and in some cases, a job offer - are added bonuses.
• When internships are not available, other avenues must be explored to introduce learners to work-related settings. This can be accomplished through guest speakers from business and industry, or with the assistance of the local workforce development board’s business services division, which can arrange for learners to participate in plant tours, new employee orientation, and job shadowing opportunities.
• Another way to help learners explore employment interests and opportunities is to introduce them to virtual factory tours via the Internet – also a great way to extend instruction through the use of computer technology and expose learners to other native speakers of English (http://www.superfactory.com/content/tours/htm).
• Can you suggest other ways to get business and industry engaged with adult basic education?