SHOP TALK # 9:
Preparing to Deliver Workforce-Related ABE

Published August 28, 2006

This information couldn’t have come at a better time. Industry is moving back into our area, and I received a call just last week from a company interested in having ESL instruction on site. I read the Workplace ESL Guide from cover to cover on the trip home from Ft. Davis! Now how do I arrange for professional development?

New Adult Education Director

A number of adult education programs have been receiving calls from local employers interested in arranging for language and basic skills instruction to be offered on site. Many program directors are anxious about this, wondering what to say to employers, how to determine the kind of instruction needed, and how to prepare instructors to deliver instruction focused on work-related needs.

Professional development is available to adult education program administrators and instructional staff by making a request to one of the eight GREAT Centers serving adult education programs across the state. The professional development is in modular form so that specific needs can be addressed in phases. The first four modules are primarily intended for program administrators, although some program directors want instructors to understand the entire process. Modules five and six focus on instruction and assessment.

Module One: Determining Your Program Capacity and the Services You Can Provide
Module Two: Identifying Local Labor Market needs and Conducting an Instructional Needs Analysis
Module Three: Facilitating a Team of Stakeholders to Plan, Implement, and Sustain a Continuum of Services
Module Four: Drawing Up an Agreement: Defining and Agreeing Upon Mutual and Achievable Goals and Objectives
Module Five: Planning Curriculum and Delivering Contextual Instruction Based on Identified Needs (primarily for instructors and instructional coordinators)
Module Six: Monitoring, Measuring, and Reporting Learner Progress and Program Success (important for program administrators and instructional staff)

Once you have identified your professional development needs, follow these steps:

  1. Complete the online Workplace ESL Readiness Inventory for Program Directors (http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?A=140038548E8093).
  2. Review the module descriptions above and prioritize your needs and those of your instructional staff. Select the modules that best address your needs.
  3. Identify instructors / instructional coordinators you would like to have participate in the modular training, and submit their names to the Workplace Instructor Cadre; this will enable you to build your own local expertise. You and identified staff will then be an inventory focused on instructional issues. This inventory will provide additional focus.
  4. Contact the GREAT Center serving your area to request training.


Note: If you have an immediate need for technical support (you just took a call from an employer requesting services!), contact Barbara Tondre at btondre@earthlink.net, or call (512) 251-0046.