Good Day!
The following message was sent to me by a new member after I had
forwarded our discussion materials to her, and I have her permission to
post it to the list.  She raises some provocative general questions
about certificates.  Please chime in with your thoughts!
Donna

Donna Brian, moderator
Workplace Literacy Discussion List
Center for Literacy at The University of Tennessee djgbrian at utk.edu

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Dear Donna:

Thank you very much for the information you forwarded to me.   Work
skills programs and work certificates are entirely  new subjects for me.
I am glad that I subscribed to the discussion.  I was very touched by
the anecdotal information from the instructor and the students in one of
the Work Certificate Programs.  I think it was the one in Ohio.
  
I browsed through the nifl messages from the Workplace discussion list.
I scrolled up and down from 404 and came across the CAELA information
regarding the amount of foreign born employees who  entered the job
market in the 21st century. 

I guess that what caught my attention the most was the insights
regarding interaction between work and language skills.  The different
approaches described to help workers whose language competence requires
improvement sound really interesting.

I have a question but I am not sure if I am on target with the nature of
the discussion.  While credentials enable workers to improve their self
esteem and carry legal and professional value, they also seem to punish
the workers that have not had the opportunity to participate in programs
like the ones I read about.  

The amount of Latino adult students captured in data as "waiting list",
plus the statistical information forwarded by Jackie Taylor regarding
gains in literacy skill across ethnicities and ages, makes me wonder if
the certificates open a wider gap not only between documented and non
documented workers, but also among American and foreign workers of all
ethnicities?  

I have the feeling that adult certification can potentially reproduce
the same inequities derived from public education that it aims to
rectify. 

My questions must then be related to funding.  Work skills certificates
are expensive from the point of view of the employer.  What percentage
of the workers have access to work skills programs? And do certificates
broaden the gap among workers in America? 

We would benefit from knowing what research tells us about public
education and what age is at the highest risk of needing future
correction of inequities and lack of access to social, technical and
cultural capital.

Thank you again for the materials.

Nadia