Been following with interest this discussion on revival of NWL program. I do
think there are important differences, conceptually and practically, in
these terms. For me, work-based education is a broader term and includes
education in training in the workplace, continuing education and training
for incumbent workers but outside the workplace, and preparation for work.

The latter represents an area I have posted on before - the academic skills
of those entering or seeking to enter occupational preparation programs. I
had one instructor of anatomy tell me she had a man  in her class who
aspired to nursing but who read at the third grade level. Needless to say,
she was not optimistic about his chances of passing the course.

Just some thoughts in the early hours of the morning, half way around the
world.

John

On Fri, Oct 31, 2008 at 6:51 AM, Lloyd David <
lloyd_david at creativeworkplacelearning.org> wrote:


> 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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> Email delivered to lloyd_david at creativeworkplacelearning.org

>

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> Email delivered to dirkx at msu.edu

>




-- 
John M. Dirkx
Professor
Higher, Adult and Lifelong Education
Michigan State University
517-353-8927
FAX: 517-884-1392
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