How-To's

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Filling America's Jobs: How to Turn Employers into Partners
A Guide for Public Workforce Professionals
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The Manufacturing Institute/Center for Workforce Success, 2004
Designed to help public workforce professionals work more closely with U.S. manufacturers. Explains what motivates employers to become partners with workforce development agencies, how to create partnership opportunities that attract businesses and improve the effectiveness of workforce investment boards and One-Stop Career Centers, and how to market public workforce development systems to businesses. Features tools useful for workforce development agencies and other organizations wanting to collaborate with employers. Tools address: identifying challenges in involving business, making the best use of business partnerships, and creating promotional materials targeting business, among other topics.
For more information about the guide and its availability, contact the Center for Workforce Success (CWS) at
pwalton@nam.org

Filling America's Jobs: How You Can Benefit from the Public Workforce Development System
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A Guide for Employers
The Manufacturing Institute/Center for Workforce Success, 2004
Describes for employers how public/private partnerships can help them find and keep skilled workers. Introduces employers to the programs and services available through the public workforce development system and explains how they can shape these to meet their needs. Highlights the information and services available through the One-Stop Career Centers. Explains how employer associations functioning as workforce intermediaries have partnered with One-Stops, workforce investment boards, and educators to help resolve the skill shortages faced by member companies.
For more information about the guide and its availability, contact the Center for Workforce Success (CWS) at
pwalton@nam.org

Helping Job Seekers With Limited Basic Skills
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John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, 2004
Designed for program planners and staff at public and private career centers and useful to policy makers, employers, and adult educators, this hands-on guide describes how to plan, implement, and improve services in one-stop career centers for job seekers with basic skills needs. Its four sections focus on meeting the needs of unemployed or underemployed adults: understanding their characteristics, challenges, and service needs; planning a comprehensive system of tailored services; implementing a service system integrating workforce development and adult education; and sustaining programs and services through professional development, evaluation, organizational development, and public outreach. Includes step-by-step instructions and tips.
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The Language of Opportunity: Expanding Employment Prospects for Adults with Limited English Skills
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H. Wrigley, E. Richer, H. Kubo, and J. Strawn, Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP), 2003
Outlines the strengths, challenges, and needs of limited English proficient adults in the labor market. Based on scientific evaluations and non-experimental research, offers program design and policy recommendations for providing high-quality education and training services to this population. Recommendations include: combining language and literacy services with job skills training, offering short-term bridge programs to help students make a transition to training and higher education, and creating career pathways. Appendix includes brief profiles of promising programs.
http://ecs.org/html/Document.asp?chouseid=5872

Literacy Toolkit
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U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Gives an overview of the importance of basic skills in the workplace, the current status of the U.S. workforce, and the benefits that improved worker skills can bring to businesses. Includes practical tools and resources for improving workplace literacy, such as a sample PowerPoint presentation on literacy, a skill assessment tool for businesses, and a glossary of literacy terms. Site also links to the Chamber’s workplace literacy guide, Higher Skills, Bottom-Line Results.
http://www.uschamber.com/icw/tools/literacytool.htm

The Right Job: Identifying Career Advancement Opportunities for Low-Income Workers
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S. Goldberger, N. Lessell, and R. Biswas, Jobs for the Future (JFF), 2005
Demonstrates how policymakers and workforce development program directors can identify promising employment opportunities and career pathways for low-income adults by analyzing occupational data and consulting with employers and training providers. Provides examples of the postsecondary training and career preparation required for six occupational career clusters in healthcare, customer service, automotive and trucking production, computers, building trades, and commercial driving.
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ScorecardforSkills.com
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The Conference Board, developed for the U.S. Department of Education
Applies the balanced scorecard approach, a performance measurement system, to workplace education. Site offers employers and educators surveys, checklists, worksheets, assessment and evaluation tools, and other resources to help them measure and document the effectiveness of their workplace education programs.
http://www.scorecardforskills.com/

Work First: A How-To Guide
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A. Brown, Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation (MDRC), 1997
Focuses on the implementation and management of Work First programs, which help adults transition into unsubsidized jobs through workforce education and job skills training activities. Offers examples from effective state and county programs plus suggestions, case studies, and administrative tools for program planners, administrators, and other staff.
http://www.mdrc.org/Reports/workfirst.htm

Workforce Education LAB (Learning Activities Bank)
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Southern LINCS and Verizon Links Virginia for Literacy
An online bank of work-related basic skills lessons on topics ranging from communication and problem solving to computer technology. Each lesson plan is organized by learning objectives, skills to be acquired, learner needs and goals to be addressed, a description of the learner activity, a list of required materials and resources, and assessment instructions. Site also provides an online form for adult education instructors to submit their own learning activities for possible inclusion in the bank.
http://slincs.coe.utk.edu/gtelab/

Workplace Essential Skills, Pre-GED, and GED Connection
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Kentucky Education Television for PBS Literacy Link
Multimedia curriculum that teaches basic reading, writing, math, and job skills. Links to public television programs, workbooks, and online lessons in the areas of workforce development, pre-GED, GED, and English literacy/civics education.
http://litlink.ket.org/wesged.aspl

Adult Education at Work: A Collaborative Resource Addressing the Changing World of Work and Learning
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D. Davis, Tennessee Department of Education, Division of Adult and Community Education
A step-by-step guide for adult education program administrators interested in creating or improving workplace education programs through partnerships with employers and other educators. Describes the history of and current trends in workplace education and offers information, ideas for activities, resources, and sample forms to help develop a program’s infrastructure, goals, partnerships, content, recruiting techniques, and methods for assessment, evaluation, and reporting.
Download/view: PDF (599KB) | HTML

Foundation Skills: Framework for Building Pennsylvania's Workforce
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Bureau of Adult Basic and Literacy Education, Pennsylvania Department of Education
Provides agencies and organizations involved in employment, training, and education with a framework, complemented by tools and materials, that will help them better understand Pennsylvania's work-based foundation skills and their role in the continual development of the workforce. Work-based foundation skills are broken into the following categories: basic workplace skills (which include applied academic skills), basic employment skills, basic workplace knowledge, and basic lifelong learning skills.
http://www.pawerc.org/foundationskills/cwp/view.asp?a=249&Q=92970
&foundationskillsNav=|5553|

I-BEST: A Program Integrating Adult Basic Education and Workforce Training
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Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges, 2005
Provides an overview of the Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training (I-BEST) demonstration program in Washington State. Program uses a co-instruction model that pairs ABE/EL instructors and professional-technical instructors. Report presents lessons learned and related research and illustrates how they can be applied to practice.
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