Lloyd and all,
The 6 recommendations sound very much like the National Commissions Reach 
Higher report.  Happy to hear that much is being implemented.
Jim

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Lloyd David" <lloyd_david at creativeworkplacelearning.org>
To: "'The Workplace Literacy Discussion List'" <workplace at nifl.gov>
Sent: Thursday, October 30, 2008 6:51 PM
Subject: [Workplace 1651] Re: Revive the NWLP



> Paul,

> I agree with your suggestions. In Massachusetts the Secretary of Labor and

> Workforce Development as Chair of the Mass. Workforce Investment Board

> established a special committee on Adult Basic Education/English for

> Speakers of Other Languages. In September the Committee issued it report 

> and

> recommendations:

> 1. Create a coordinating body with state-level policy-making

> authority to undertake the    tasks recommended. (This has been done.)

> 2. Create a dedicated fund for workplace education

> 3. Increase capacity development in the field.

> 4. Improve linkages to post-secondary education, training, and

> employment

> 5. Support educational counseling, job coaching, and transition

> counseling,

> 6. Increase employer participation for investment in adult basic

> education.

>

> I think that the COABE pre-conference on work(place, force, based??)

> education should look at what the states have been doing in this regard.

> This is a good way to re-invigorate the field and possibly develop a

> national organization of work (place, force, based??) education

> professionals.

>

> Lloyd

>

>

>

>

>

> Lloyd David, EdD.

> Creative Workplace Learning

> 311 Washington Street

> Brighton, MA 02135

> Tel :  617-783-6360

> FAX: 617-782-0136

>

> -----Original Message-----

> From: workplace-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:workplace-bounces at nifl.gov] On

> Behalf Of JURMO at ucc.edu

> Sent: Thursday, October 30, 2008 12:57 PM

> To: workplace at nifl.gov

> Subject: [Workplace 1648] Re: Revive the NWLP

>

> 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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