[AAACE-NLA] FW: FCE and Workforce Development

[David Collings]

The following message is sent on behalf of Lansing Davis
(Lansing.Davis at dol.state.nj.us).

David C.

-----Original Message-----
From: Davis, Lansing [mailto:Lansing.Davis at dol.state.nj.us] 
Subject: RE: [AAACE-NLA] FCE and Workforce Development

In NJ the adult education function Title II was transfer from Education to
(Labor) the Department of Labor and Workforce Development.  Labor also has a
significant investment on workforce literacy skills development.  They have
established computer based learning centers (Workforce Learning Links)
within all of the State's comprehensive One-Stop Centers.  Literacy planning
is now coordinated thru the WIBs and Links and Title II must collaborate
with one another in areas such as testing, referrals, etc.

Lansing Davis
New Jersey State Employment and
Training Commission
609/633-0605

-----Original Message-----
From: aaace-nla-bounces at lists.literacytent.org
[mailto:aaace-nla-bounces at lists.literacytent.org] On Behalf Of Sandy Strunk
Sent: Monday, February 26, 2007 5:38 PM
To: yohogclc at earthlink.net,National Literacy Advocacy List sponsored by
AAACE
Subject: Re: [AAACE-NLA] FCE and Workforce Development

Debbie,
In Lancaster, PA, we're working with our local Workforce Investment Board
and one-stop partners to offer ABE instruction, primarily reading and math,
within the context of several career clusters. The first cluster we've
piloted is healthcare. We have a certified nurse aide (CNA) career path with
instruction sequenced from ABE or high intermediate ESL through the CNA
course offered by our county Career and Technology Center. We use the WIN
assessment (correlated with Work Keys) to place students into the ABE class
or directly into the CNA program, if scores are high enough. We also offer a
higher level ABE/GED course for our learners who want to enter an LPN or RN
program at a local institution of higher education. Typically, they are
referred to us by the nursing school because they have failed the Nursing
Entrance Exam or because they need a GED. Either way, we work with them on
specific skills and then transition them into continuing higher education.

Our partnerships with the private sector are in the beginning stages, but
we're making progress. With the healthcare cluster, we're working with local
hospitals and a consortium of long-term care providers. The key for us is to
provide high quality instruction up-front so that the employer has some
assurance that those adults who complete our program will, most likely,
succeed in the workplace. We're currently exploring ways we can help our
learners develop a career-specific portfolio that not only looks at their
academic accomplishments, but also speaks to their performance in soft skill
areas during their training period. This is one of the things employers tell
us they want.

The second cluster we're working on is manufacturing. Again, using WIN
and/or Work Keys as a universal assessment at our one-stop center, we
provide instruction to adults who lack the work-based foundation skills to
transition into a family-sustaining position in manufacturing.

It's our belief that once we can build high quality instruction in one
cluster, the underlying reading and math skills are fundamentally the same
for others. 

In Lebanon County, which is much smaller than Lancaster and has the lowest
unemployment rate in the state, we're taking a slightly different approach.
Working in collaboration with another Workforce Investment Board and one
stop center, we've developed a basic skills assessment and soft skills
training program for a consortium of manufacturers. Clients are referred by
the one stop center because they're interested in working for one of the
consortium members. These are primarily unskilled positions; however,
employers have voiced an urgent need for pre-employment soft skills
training. As part of the soft skills training program, we assess the
client's basic skills in reading and math and, if appropriate, refer them to
one of our community-based evening ABE/GED/ESL classes where they will be
able to obtain the work-based foundation skills they need to progress to
higher level employment.

Sandy Strunk
Program Director for Community Education Lancaster-Lebanon IU 13 1020 New
Holland Avenue Lancaster, PA 17601
(717) 606-1873
Fax-(717) 606-1905


On 2/26/07 3:50 PM, "Debbie Yoho" <yohogclc at earthlink.net> wrote:

> I am convinced of the power of FCE and appreciate Tom Sticht's essay
> offered on this list.   But at least in the US, a great deal of adult
> illiteracy has been addressed not by the public systems, but by
secular
> non-profits and churches.  Indeed, here in SC the adult ed system as
well
> as the technical college system usually refer the lowest-level adult 
> learners who need beginning reading skills to the non-profit literacy 
> programs, and we have no relationship with vocational education.
> Question:  what programs in the US or elsewhere have integrated the
private
> sector into  full partnership with public adult vocational education 
> programs for service delivery?  I'm looking for a model and someone I
can
> talk to who goes beyond just making reading instruction relevant to
the
> learner's work life.    Presently, we conduct "workforce development
> programs" for employers, but do not use an FCE curriculum; the classes
are
> just reading instruction at the work site.  The content we study is 
> work-related, but does not advance specific marketable vocational
skills.
> Thanks, Debbie Yoho
> 
> 
>> [Original Message]
>> From: <tsticht at znet.com>
>> To: <aaace-nla at lists.literacytent.org>
>> Date: 2/24/2007 2:47:17 PM
>> Subject: [AAACE-NLA] FCE and Workforce Development
>> 
>> February 16, 2007
>> 
>> Functional Context Education for Workforce Development
>> 
>> Tom Sticht
>> International Consultant in Adult Education
>> 
>> In the hills and hollows of rural Kentucky in 1911 there were no
lights
>> to help the night-time traveler find the way to a distant school. So
the
>> schools operated only on nights when the moon was out. For this
reason
>> they became known as the Moonlight schools of Kentucky.
>> 
>> Started by Cora Wilson Stewart, Superintendent of Schools in Rowan 
>> County, the Moonlight schools aimed at teaching literacy to the 
>> illiterate adults in the county. However there were no readers in
print
>> for teaching adult illiterates, and Stewart thought it inappropriate
to
>> use the same readers and texts for adults as were used for children
in
>> the day school. So she developed the Rowan County Messenger as a 
>> newspaper which could be used to teach reading and writing using news 
>> about which the adults were interested.
>> 
>> Later Stewart wrote a series of texts for adult literacy learners
called
>> the Country Life Readers. In these texts she once again placed the 
>> teaching of reading and writing within content areas of interest to
the
>> rural populations of Kentucky such as farm improvement, good roads, 
>> horticulture, sanitation and so forth. She said, "...each lesson 
>> accomplished a double purpose, the primary one of teaching the pupil
to
>> read, and at the same time that of imparting instruction in the
things
>> that vitally affected him in his daily life" (Stewart, 1922, p. 71).
>> 
>> Jumping ahead almost a century, today in the industrialized nations
of
>> the world there is an urgent concern for up-skilling the literacy, 
>> language and numeracy (LLN) and vocational skills of under-skilled 
>> workforces.
>> International adult literacy surveys showing one- to two-fifths of a 
>> nation's workforce with lower than expected LLN skills and an
emergent
>> globalization of work with jobs being sent to lower wage nations have 
>> heightened the need for effective and efficient ways to help adults 
>> up-skill, re-skill and cross-train as jobs shift globally and 
>> technologically.
>> 
>> Fortunately, since Cora Wilson Stewart's pioneering work showing how
to
>> accomplish "a double purpose" in literacy education, there have been
a
>> number of studies that have demonstrated how to apply the same
approach
>> to integrate basic skills with vocational skills training. A review
of
>> 50 years of research in the U. S. Department of Defense on how to 
>> re-design both vocational programs and literacy programs to
accommodate
>> less skilled personnel and provide them with job-related knowledge, 
>> skills, and literacy was conducted by Sticht, et al. (1987). They
found
>> one project showing that in an integrated basic skills and job
knowledge
>> program, students made as much or more gain in "general" literacy as
was
>> made in general literacy programs that were not job-related.
Importantly
>> however, the integrated program made over three to five times the
amount
>> of gain in job-related reading as achieved by the general literacy 
>> program.
>> 
>> The foregoing review lead to the formulation of Functional Context 
>> Education with several principles for creating integrated vocational 
>> and basic skills courses that facilitate learning on entry into the 
>> course, learning throughout the course, and transfer into the
contexts
>> for which the learning is meant to apply. To accomplish these 
>> objectives, courses should be developed that:
>> 
>> oExplain what the students are to learn and why in such a way that
they
>> can always understand both the immediate and long term usefulness of
the
>> course content (facilitates entry into the course; motivates
learning).
>> 
>> oConsider the old knowledge that students bring with them to the
course,
>> and build new knowledge on the basis of this old knowledge
(facilitates
>> entry
>> learning)
>> 
>> oSequence each new lesson so that it builds on prior knowledge gained
in
>> the previous lessons (facilitates in-course learning).
>> 
>> oIntegrate instruction in reading, writing, arithmetic, and problem 
>> solving into vocational or technical training programs as the content
of
>> the course poses requirements for these skills that many potential 
>> students may not possess; avoid decontextualized basic skills
"remedial"
>> programs (facilitates in-course learning; motivates basic skills 
>> learning; reduces instruction time; develops "learning to learn"
ability
>> ).
>> 
>> oDerive objectives from careful analysis of the explicit and tacit 
>> knowledge and skill needed in the technical training, or employment 
>> context for which the learner is preparing (facilitates transfer).
>> 
>> oUse, to the extent possible, learning contexts, tasks, materials,
and
>> procedures taken from the future situation in which the learner will
be
>> functioning (facilitates transfer).
>> 
>> Since the appearance of the review describing the research basis for 
>> Functional Context Education (FCE), large-scale efforts to develop
FCE
>> courses that integrate vocational and LLN (variously referred to as 
>> integrated, embedded, or contextualized programs) have taken place in 
>> Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the 
>> United States. In the UK, FCE integrating vocational and LLN is
referred
>> to as embedded LLN. Recent research in the UK has shown that the 
>> greater the extent of embedding of literacy into vocational training, 
>> the greater the completion rates, achievements of qualifications, and 
>> other important outcomes for both literacy and vocational
qualifications
>> (Casey, et. al, 2006).
>> 
>> Numerous documents for developing integrated LLN and vocational 
>> education are now available on the internet in the industrialized 
>> nations identified above. For information about many of these various 
>> FCE reports go to www.nald.ca/fulltext/fce/cover.htm and see
Functional
>> Context Education:
>> Making Learning Relevant in the 21st Century. Chapter 2 in this
report
>> provides information about the FCE programs in the nations identified 
>> above.
>> 
>> The many projects integrating vocational and LLN demonstrate that it
is
>> not necessary that adults with low basic skills first raise these
skills
>> to a level thought necessary to succeed in a vocational course.
Instead,
>> by integrating the vocational and LLN education, it is possible to 
>> achieve what Cora Wilson Stewart called "a double purpose", adults
can
>> improve their basic skills while also acquiring much-needed
vocational
>> education.
>> 
>> References
>> 
>> Casey, H. et. al (2006, November). "You wouldn't expect a maths
teacher
>> to teach plastering..." online at www.nrdc.org.uk.
>> 
>> Stewart, C. (1922). Moonlight schools. NY: E. P. Dutton & Co.
>> 
>> Sticht, T. et. al (1987). Cast-off youth: policies and training
methods
>> from the military experience. NY: Praeger.
>> 
>> 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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> 
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