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

Module Six: Delivering Instruction Responsive to Identified Needs

If It Looks Like A Duck…

Then perhaps you are already delivering workforce-related instruction without labeling it as such. As an adult education instructor, chances are that you already appreciate and try to address some of your students’ work-related needs and concerns in the classroom. Students may already be asking you to help them understand work-related forms, handbooks, or benefits packages. But actually integrating workforce-related topics into instruction requires a conscious decision on your part. It also requires that you understand the knowledge, skills, and tools needed by learners to succeed in the 21st century.

Adult education programs differ in their capacity to deliver workforce-related instruction to English language learners. Decisions about delivery are influenced by funding and instructor availability, local partnerships and collaboration within workforce development systems, and linkages to post secondary education and training as well as local businesses and industries. For practical purposes, we will focus on two of the most likely scenarios in which you, the instructor might be asked to deliver workforce-related ESL instruction:

Traditional ESL Instruction With a Workforce-Related Twist.
Since all adult basic education classes are expected to help learners address their family, community, and workplace needs, most traditional ESL instruction must include some attention to workforce-related language and employability skills development. The extent of the workforce focus is largely determined by the program director’s guidance, program priorities, instructor preparation, assessment of learners’ needs, and the intensity of the classes. Learning centers with staff sufficient to allow for small group activities are often able to schedule instructional components specifically geared to learners’ workforce-related needs and interests. This is a viable option when separate classes focused specifically on one group of employees’ instructional needs can not be offered.

Vocational English as a Second-Language (VESL or VESOL) courses are offered to students with low levels of English language proficiency but a high or immediate need for employment or reemployment. These courses are usually of high intensity (meeting up to 20 to 25 hours per week) and of short duration (three to four months or less). Most VESL programs are either a) general orientation courses for specific industries and occupations, or b) courses that prepare learners to access entry level jobs, provide opportunities for hands-on training, or prepare learners for more advanced education and certification.

Sound adult learning theory and the principles of second language learning form the foundation of any successful occupation-related ESL instruction. This handbook is not a substitute for strong professional development in the principles of adult second language learning.

One Solution: A Modular Approach to Instruction
How can an adult education program expand its attention to workforce-related instruction without restructuring the entire program? A modular approach to instruction can be incorporated into regular adult education instruction fairly easily, providing all learners access to workforce-related topics. This seems to work especially well in small programs for which offering separate and distinct workforce-focused classes is not feasible.

Modular approaches to instructional delivery – usually high in intensity and short in duration – have proven to be both successful and efficient. The window of instructional opportunity for adult learners is often limited by both time and funding, plus unemployed adults must find ways to support themselves and their families. Courses of short but intense duration seem to reduce attrition, are easier to access by those already employed, and by their very nature familiarize participants with the real pressures of the work environment. The modular approach also allows both programs and learners maximum flexibility. In the report, Charting a Course: Responding to the Industry-Related Adult Basic Education Needs of the Limited English Proficient (Tondre 2006), recommendations include a modular approach to tackling adult learners’ needs, with attention to the following components:

  • student orientation to the world of work
  • work-related English language instruction as well as reading, writing, and math skills development
  • a balanced integration of English language / basic skills development with work-related content
  • employment readiness skills (including critical, interpersonal, and life skills)
  • the use of industry-related environmental print, terminology, and realia
  • familiarity with technology, including basic computer literacy, job-related technical terminology, equipment, and applications
  • integration with vocational skills training when partnerships make this feasible
  • links to postsecondary technical education and training leading to career opportunities, licensure, and certification in healthcare, manufacturing, and sales and service industry clusters

The capacity to offer all of these components requires the leveraging of local resources as well as strong partnerships with local workforce development networks, business and industry, and post secondary education/training providers.

The curricular responses to Education Rider 82 (79th state legislative session, 2005), developed under the direction of El Paso Community College, are modular in nature to afford maximum flexibility in use. Three industry clusters – healthcare, manufacturing, and sales and service – are being addressed in response to this state legislation. The responses include references to additional activities, commercially prepared and web-based materials, software and other multi-media products that can be used to enhance or extend learning beyond classroom instruction.

Next | Table of Contents | Previous