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recently posted:

Language for Work, a European learning network for professionals supporting work-related second language development

Jobs and Employment; learner resources from Web-ESL.com

Reading Skills for Healthcare Workers

Unlocking Skills: Successful Initiatives for Integrating Foreign-Trained Immigrant Professionals

Popular Educator's Guide Problem-Posing at Work Nina Wallerstein and Elsa Auerbach

Tennessee ESOL in the Workplace; compendium of ideas, resources and approaches to ESOL work at work.

A Toolkit for ESL Practitioners: Supporting Skilled Immigrants

Job Creation in a Green Economy, ATMAE White Paper, 2014

Work Focused ESOL for Parents - final version, report of a pilot which was delivered within the East and West London City Strategy Pathfinder Areas (October 2008 to March 2011).

online application; practice for online and paper/pencil application processes

How to teach vocational education: A theory of vocational pedagogy. Bill Lucas, Ellen Spencer and Guy Claxton December 2012, City and Guilds Center for Skills Development

English for the nursing assistant: communication on the job

Skills Highway, New Zealand -  "your road to business performance improvements starting with workplace training in reading, maths and communication skills"

Connecting Literacy, Learning & Work Christine Pinsent-Johnson, 2008
(direct link to PDF here: http://sarn.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Pinsent-Johnson-Connecting-2008.pdf)

LINCS career pathways resources - includes resources applicable to workforce basic skills education, English language acquisition, and/or technology.

Upwardly Global - a resource for immigrant professionals and employers

O*NET OnLine - tool for career exploration and job analysis

Steps to Employment in Ontario - listings of required skills and knowledge for numerous occupations, including workbooks,  instructor and implementation guides.

What's going on with the Adult Education Professional Development Center work on workforce learning and development?
links to resources related to employability skills; workforce development overview and related word document


Building Skills Partnership
  - statewide non-profit collaboration between the Californian janitors’ union, SEIU Local 1877, community leaders, and responsible businesses to build a strong future for building service workers, their families, and communities by advancing skills, opportunities, and self-sufficiency.  Includes learning materials and other information.



The WoLLNET project  aims to create a web-based, user-friendly Toolkit to enable employers, providers and unions to evaluate the impact of workplace literacy, language and numeracy (LLN) training programmes on learning, individual development and organisational performance.   The site also contains a useful set of links to international resources relevant to workplace learning.

National Research and Development Centre for Adult Literacy and Numeracy (UK) -  downloadable documents  on ESOL, literacy, workplace education and other related resources.
and other related pieces.


Skills for Life -  U.K. -based Embedded Skills for Life in Vocational Qualifications Project; the site is "designed to help you access the work of those awarding bodies and Sector Skills Councils that worked with us to develop ways to embed Skills for Life and Key Skills into different aspects of their work." Totally Skilled, the resource in question, seems hard to find; this link brings you to other related Skills for Life documents and resources.

National Skills Coalition (formerly The Workforce Alliance) -national coalition of community-based organizations, community colleges, unions, business leaders and local officials advocating for public policies that invest in the skills of America's workers, so they can better support their families and help American businesses better compete in today's economy.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.and SEIU 1199 - The Freedom we Seek;  history of the Reverand Dr. King's relationship with the union, as well as a speech he delivered shortly before his assassination


Green Jobs and the building trades

Building Basics - ESOL Toolkit for General Construction, Landscaping, Painting, and Plumbing from the Virginia Adult Learning Resource Center.


The Maturing of a Profession:  An Overview of Workplace Education Practitioner Development Opportunities by Margarit Roger, M.Ed


about.com - Workplace literacy and basic skills: compendium of resources
Applications of Working and Learning -  Canadian AWAL national professional development project for educators. "Participants are placed in a variety of workplace environments to help them connect the curriculum they teach in the classroom with how that curriculum is used in the workplace. Using what they learn, participants develop relevant classroom activities that are then stored in an easy to use, searchable, electronic database."

The Impact of Arts Education on Workforce Preparation - National Governors Association Issue Brief providing "examples of arts-based education as a money-and time-saving option for states looking to build skills, increase academic success, heighten standardized test scores, and lower the incidence of crime among general and at-risk populations."
Asian Immigrant Women Advocates - (AIWA) is a community based organization established in 1983. Through education, leadership development, and organizing, AIWA seeks to foster empowerment of low-income, limited English speaking Asian immigrant women who work as seamstresses, hotel room cleaners, electronics assemblers, nursing home workers, and janitors in the greater San Francisco, Oakland, and South Bay Area.
(read an article about AIWA in Sojourners Magazine, July-August, 1997.)


Ask a working woman - one of AFLCIO's women and work resources, with results of their 2002 survey indicating that child care (not surprisingly) is a necessity for parents who work, study or otherwise need to be out of the house to earn a living.

BBC Skillswise - vocabulary developed around work clusters, including childcare, carpentry, and health care, among others.
Career Planning Guide for Adult Learners - useful set of questions for reflection about work for those seeking new or different kinds of employment.

Career Voyages – US Dept of Labor website exploring career options in advanced manufacturing, automotive, construction, energy, financial services, health care, hospitality, information technology, retail, and transportation industries, as well as in emerging industries -- biotechnology, geospatial technology, and nanotechnology. Learn which industries are growing, how to qualify for a good job, and where to get started. Includes video (with subtitles) illustrating a number of occupations.


The Center for Study of Working Class Life -  dedicated to exploring the meaning of class in today's world.  Its work includes the study of class "mainly with tools of the social sciences, but we also pay attention to the arts. Through our gallery and tv/video pages, we highlight the work of artists who convey the many faces and circumstances of working people today."


Certified Nursing Assistant materials - excellent resources available from Frontline Publishing Corporation and, Nursing Assistant Monthly and  Nursing Assistant resources on the web.

Project Care - for high-intermediate to advanced English language learners who want to learn about caring for others while improving their communication with medical personnel.



District 1199 Training and Upgrading fund -  The New England Health Care Employees Union, District 1199 and the  Connecticut Nursing Homes Training and Upgrading Fund provides educational  opportunities for 1199 members from 37 nursing homes, and one residential  facility, throughout the state of Connecticut.

Employability Skills:  An Update - ERIC Digest No. 220  by Christine Overtoom, 2000. [one of several digests relevant to adult learning at the ERIC Clearninghouse on Adult, Career and Vocational Education.



Employment and housing rights for survivors of abuse - one of a series of pages at Legal Momentum that examines work and women's rights on the job. 


Equipped for the Future - Workforce Development professional development and curriculum materials, including Preparing for Careers in Sales and Service and Preparing for Work, that integrates the knowledge and skills required for entry level workers across industry sectors.

Equipped for the Future Work Readiness Credential - initiative designed to identify those skills needed to enter the workforce: " a new tool for assuring that jobseekers have the knowledge, skills, and abilities they need to succeed in the 21st Century Workplace."

Essential skills - from the Canadian Automotive Repair and Serivce - an enumeration of skills needed for work, learning and life; providing the foundation for learning all other skills. Essential skills enable people to evolve with their jobs, adapting to workplace changes.


Essential Skills for Life, Learning and Work  -  multiple links to banks of workplace tasks and overarching language/literacy skills, from Human Resources Development, Canada


Focus on Basics: Workplace Education - November, 2004

Getting There: A Curriculum for People Moving into Employment (pdf file) - Marian Colette, Beverly Woliver, Mary Beth Bingman and Juliet Merrifield, 1996Facilitator's guide (html)

Good Practice in Use - Guidelines for Good Practice in Workplace Education
: (Mary Ellen Belfiore, Ontario Literacy Coalition, September 2002), and other workplace education resources.

The Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers - "a university-based research and policy center dedicated to raising the effectiveness of the American workplace by strengthening workforce education, placement and training programs and policies."


Hotel T.E.A.C.H. Project Curriculum - language skills, resources (including podcasts) from the Center for Immigrant Education and Training. 

The Impact of the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001 on Women's Employment -  from The National Jobs for All Coalition


Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training (I-BEST) pairs English as a second language (ESL) / adult basic education (ABE) instructors with professional-technical instructors in the classroom to provide students with literacy education and workforce skills at the same time. I-BEST challenges the traditional notion that students must first complete all levels of basic education before they can begin workforce training.



Integrating Career Awareness into the ABE and ESOL classroom - (PDF) - 210-page curriculum guide containing ready-to-use lessons.



Jobs for the Future - resources for creating strategies for educational and economic opportunity
The Language of Opportunity: Expanding Employment Prospects for Adults with Limited English Skills, CENTER FOR LAW AND SOCIAL POLICY: Heide Spruck Wrigley, Elise Richer, Karin Martinson, Hitomi Kubo, and Julie Strawn. September, 2003
This report describes the demographics and economic circumstances of low-income adults with limited English proficiency (LEP) as well as the language and job training services available to them. The authors summarize lessons from scientific evaluation research on employment programs for low-skilled adults and provide recommendations for policy and practice that would increase opportunities for LEP adults to gain access to higher-paying jobs. The appendix includes profiles of several programs that are successfully training and working with LEP adults.

Learning For Life - campus based community service program that pairs Swarthmore College students with members of the College staff. The "learning partnerships" work together on various continuing education activities, from learning basic computer skills, to taking and developing pictures, to reading the Bible or to preparing for the GED. 

Literacy at Work
- Newsletter of ABC Canada Literacy Foundation
Looking for a Job?   A guide for adult literacy students - step by step guide to the job-seeking process.

Helping Job Seekers Who Have Limited Basic Skills -  guide providing program planners and frontline staff at public and private career centers with an introduction to the steps involved in planning, implementing, and improving a system of services that helps job seekers who have limited basic skills to meet workplace skill requirements and get and keep rewarding, financially sustaining jobs.

National Workplace Literacy Program - archived materials as well as other related resources.

New Skills for a New Economy report and awareness campaign from MassINC, examining connections between educational attainment and employment possiblities for adult in (and around) Massachusetts,
- and other resources from Commonwealth Magazine

Participatory Classess About Work and Union by Jenny Lee Utech, in Field Notes Vol. 13, No. 3(Winter 2003)  Theme: Social Justice - including other pieces about work and workers' rights.

Self-esteem and employment - workshop delivered by the Employment Project for Women, Inc., Manitoba.
from The Workforce Alliance: Skilling the American Workforce 'On The Cheap': Ongoing Shortfalls in Federal Funding for Workforce Development  "...the federal government's investments in workforce development programs - particularly those targeting low-income adults and youth - have seen significant cuts in recent years. Notable findings include a near 30% reduction in annual funding (inflation-adjusted) for U.S. Department of Labor job training programs since the mid-1980s, translating into lost opportunities both for a significant number of American workers and for U.S. businesses that continue to suffer from shortages of skilled labor. At the same time, Washington policymakers have restructured a number of federal programs so that they are more focused on short-term "work first"  activities rather than training job-seekers for 21st century jobs.

Starting with Women's Lives: Changing Today's Economy - A Facilitator's Guide to a Visual Workshop Methodology  by Suzanne Doerge and Beverly Burke,  Women's Inter-Church Council of Canada and Canadian Labour Congress, 2000

Steps to Employment in Ontario - series of manuals for teachers and learners related to a number of occupations.  While some material is specific to Ontario, much is adaptable and useful as resource material.  Includes content as well as supporting skills work.
Taxi dreams: PBS documentary series  -  immigrant drivers "on the road to the American dream."
Teacher's Guide to the Occupational Outlook Handbook describes hundreds of jobs. For each job, it tells what workers do, working conditions, the training and education needed, earnings, and expected job prospects.  Job search tips, information about the job market in each state, articles about specific occupations and industries, and additional career information are included.

Understanding Curriculum Development in the Workplace: A Resource for Educators by Mary Ellen Belfiore; posted 11/03, written in 1996, this
resource book written by Mary Ellen Belfiore provides a comprehensive view of a range of curriculum development approaches.

Whose economic wellbeing?: A challenge to dominant discourses on the relationship between literacy and numeracy skills and (un)employment - (2002) Paper challenging "common sense understandings of the relationship between literacy and numeracy skills and (un)employment." Critical perspectives to consider in a time of increasingly  stringent control over who learns what.  Dr Stephen Black: University of Technology, Sydney
Women Work! The National Network for Women’s Employment, including job and training locators.

Workers on Film: Los Trabajadores and the issues explored in the film

Made in L.A. - documentary about garment workers' struggle against exploitation, including notes for educators.

Work and Learning Lifelong Network - WALL is a part of the Initiative for the New Economy, which aims to help Canadians understand and benefit from the ways in which the global economy is being transformed.

Workbase: The New Zealand Centre for Workforce Literacy Development is a not-for-profit organisation specialising in improving workforce literacy.  Many useful resources and publications.
Work For All: Stop Racism in the Workplace - Making It - an online video (10 minutes) by Sobaz Benjamin.

Workforce Development Guides - The Texas Workforce Commission has developed comprehensive guides for Texas Workforce Center, Board, and all TWC staff. Each guide provides comprehensive, statewide policy and resources for operational guidance and oversight of services and contains learning components to reinforce and support key concepts.
The Workforce Paradox for Adults with Limited Literacy and English Language Proficiency: A Report from the Field, February, 2003 - A study of the One Stop Career Centers in New Mexico and their effectiveness in serving adults with limited literacy and/or English language skill, conducted in 2002 by the New Mexico Coalition for Literacywith funding from the New Mexico Department of Labor.

Workplace learning at Harvard University - from the Harvard Gazette, September 28, 2000

Workplace Basic Skills Network
- the UK’s only national organisation dedicated to workplace basic skills training



Workers.gov
- Connects to government resources for workers on nine categories including jobs, learning, family and health, as well as rights and protections.

Workers' Educational Association - the UK's largest voluntary provider of adult learning opportunities.

Workforce Education special collection - Southern LINCS collection of resources related to workforce learning and teaching

Workforce Strategy Center and ABE Career Connections

Workforce Strategies Initiative - resources for practitioners

Working simulations - includes, to a date, an office training program teaching basic workplace skills within a simulated working environment.

Workplace and Vocational ESL Digests from ERIC and the National Clearinghouse for ESL Literacy Education / Cemter for Adult English Language Instruction

Workplace Basic Skills : a teacher's guide for community based literacy programs  - Lynette Sarah Plett 1962

Workplace Basic Skills.com - site containing workplace basic skills information, tools and advice for employers who want to raise their employees skill levels; developed by the Conference Board with funding from the US Department of Education.

Workplace Diversity - free to job seekers; fee-for-service for employers -- job search site geared towards diverse people seeking employment in a range of occupations.

Workplace education resources from Connecticut's Adult Training and Development Network

Workplace educational resources from the National Adult Literacy Database

Workplace ESL Online

Workplace Health and Safety ESOL Curriculum - by Jenny Lee Utech, Massachusetts Worker Education Roundtable, ©2005

Workplace Literacy Annotated Bibliography by Perrine Robinson-Geller.

Policy Conversation on Workplace/Workforce Literacy
January 22-24, 1995
-

Workplace literacy resources from COPIAN (formerly the National Adult Literacy Database, Canada)



Rhode Island resources

Amos House Education and Training Programs;

Beautiful DayRI, mobilizing refugee employment through business innovation

Institute for Labor Studies and Research - workplace literacy and related offerings and support


Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training

Links to job listings, information and career education and job tainingand programs in the state and beyond.

RI DLT Labor Market Information for business and reserach

Rhode Island Jobs with Justice -  RI Jobs with Justice is a coalition of labor unions, community organizations, and faith-based groups fighting for workers’ rights and economic justice in Rhode Island.  RI JwJ was formed in 1996 after the demonstrated need to fight together, in solidarity, to win real victories for workers in Rhode Island.



January 28, 2021

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