Hello, Everyone,

I agree that the US should revive its efforts to develop high quality
systems for workforce education (for both employed, unemployed, and
transitioning workers).  However, if we do so, we should build on the
research and other work that has been done to develop models of
work-related basic education since the days of the NWLP.  

Rather than just duplicate the NWLP as it was back then, we should look
at the lessons learned in the NWLP itself (which are captured in reports
housed at the ERIC-ACVE Clearinghouse and in other reports like
"Reinventing the NWLP" and a recent study by David Rosen) as well as
other more recent work done in the US and in other countries like
Canada, the UK, and New Zealand.  

The Equipped for the Future standards (and the related National Work
Readiness Credential), distance education, state-level systems for
work-related basic education, career pathway projects funded by the
USDOL and other sources, and program models developed for special
populations (e.g., immigrants, ex-offenders, etc.):  these are just some
of the resources that have been developed since the days of the NWLP.  

Paul Jurmo, Ed.D.
Dean, Economic Development and Continuing Education
Union County College
New Jersey 

-----Original Message-----
From: workplace-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:workplace-bounces at nifl.gov] On
Behalf Of tsticht at znet.com
Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 2008 2:53 PM
To: workplace at nifl.gov
Subject: [Workplace 1647] Revive the NWLP

October 29, 2008

We Need to Revive the National Workplace Literacy Program to Improve
the Economic Competitiveness of Our Present and Future Workforce

Tom Sticht
International Consultant in Adult Education

Millions of adults with the lowest literacy skills are found in
workplaces.
The National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) of 2003 indicated that
29
percent of adults who scored below basic on the prose scale on the
National
Adult Literacy Survey (NALS) of 1993 were employed full-time. In 2003
the
percentage of adults with below basic prose literacy scores who were
employed full-time rose to 35 percent, a statistically significant
increase
in full-time employed adults with literacy skills at the lowest level.
This
means that some 10.8 million adults with the lowest level of literacy
skills can be found working full-time in workplaces in the United
States. 
An additional 10 percent of adults, over 3 million,  in the lowest level
of
literacy in 2003 were working part-time. This was a two percentage point
increase from 1993.

The fact that the percentage of low literacy adults in the workplaces of
the
United States increased in the decade from 1993 to 2003, resulting in
over
13 million adults with below basic levels of literacy, suggests a need
to
revive the federal government's National Workplace Literacy Program
(NWLP)
of the late 1980s through the mid-1990s.  The NWLP provided grants for
developing and delivering adult literacy, numeracy, and English language
education programs directly in or in close proximity to the places where
low literacy adults work.

Research from before the NWLP, during the NWLP, and up to the present
has
indicated that workplace literacy program generally produce outcomes
that
are especially important during hard economic times. First, employers
are
more likely to implement workplace programs that focus directly on
improving some aspect(s) of the functions that the employer must
perform,
such as recruiting from a larger pool of available workers, making job
training more effective, increasing productivity, decreasing waste, sick
leaves, and providing opportunities to promote good workers to higher
levels of responsibility.

Second, employees are more likely to value education that will directly
help
them enter into a specific line of work, or to increase their chances of
keeping a job, or making more money, or making them more generally
employable in the world of work.

Third, a number of workplace literacy programs have indicated that even
though the program was focused directly on their jobs, employees often
reported other important outcomes beyond improved work performance,
including things like improved confidence outside the workplace in the
community, continuation of education outside the workplace program, and
improvements in their educational activities with their children or
grandchildren (e.g., reading more with them; helping them with their
homework).

These "multiplier effects" of even brief workplace literacy programs
provide
returns on investment beyond improved working ability. They provide for
what
I call "double duty dollars" meaning that a dollar spent on adult basic
education may also provide increases in parenting, grand-parenting,
health
care, and social behaviors in the community. Many dollars are often
spent
in special programs to get these various outcomes, only here one gets
these
outcomes for free--as a "spin-off" from the dollar spent on adult basic
education.

Adult educators are sometimes leery of workplace literacy programs that
focus on improving job-related literacy because they think that this
results in just a narrow band of improved literacy. But a number of
research projects from before, during, and after the NWLP have now
indicated that work-focused literacy or English language programs can
produce not just gains in job-related literacy, but also general
literacy
as measured by standardized tests such as the Tests of Adult Basic
Education (TABE) or Adult Basic Learning Exam (ABLE).

Other research on literacy for job training indicates that the more
focused
literacy or English language programs are on a specific occupational
field,
the more likely the program is to retain students to completion and
result
in the achievement of a job qualification certificate and a job. General
workforce employability programs do not achieve these types of outcomes
to
the extent as more specifically focused programs.

When asked why he robbed banks, Willie Sutton reportedly replied,
"Because
that is where the money is." That is why we need to revive the National
Workplace Literacy Program, because that is where some 13 million adults
with the lowest literacy skills are. If we invest in the education of
working adults, we can increase the competitiveness of America's
workforce,
while in many cases improving the educability of America's children, the
workforce of the future. In hard economic times, we need to get "double
duty dollars" from our investments in adult education.

Thomas G. Sticht
International Consultant in Adult Education
2062 Valley View Blvd.
El Cajon, CA 92019-2059
Tel/fax: (619) 444-9133
Email: tsticht at aznet.net






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