In the United States, approximately one in ten adults -- nearly 36 million people -- lack basic literacy and numeracy skills, while 27 million adults lack a high school diploma. Over the last decade, new models for adult education have emerged that integrate basic skills education with workforce and college-readiness training. These integrated…

Higher level vocational education and training (VET) programmes are facing rapid change and intensifying challenges. What type of training is needed to meet the needs of changing economies? How should the programmes be funded? How should they be linked to academic and university programmes? How can employers and unions be engaged? The country…

This paper considers noncredit instruction in the California Community College System. It identifies three related concepts: a state need for increased levels of education that noncredit instruction is well placed to supply, several changes that begin to facilitate that response, and additional changes that are needed to ensure success. The…

This document, which is intended for adult educators and others interested in developing and delivering a workplace education program, provides an overview of workplace education. First, workplace education programs are defined as programs in which adult learners are taught basic skills by using the functional context of their jobs and a…

Not only one educational style, i.e., Formal 3-R, is right for all students. Alternatives should be offered to ensure that different student needs are met by the school curriculum. A planning/working time line is outlined. (Author/RK)

A project was conducted in Illinois to determine what basic skills were needed in vocational education and how they should be taught. A multiple methods approach incorporating interviews, observations, surveys, and document analysis was employed to obtain data from the literature, and from practitioners, administrators, and experts in the fields…

Studies have confirmed that there is a strong correlation between employees' levels of basic workplace skills and their productivity in the workplace. Programs to build basic workplace skills have been shown to yield the following positive results: more instances of employees using reading and writing on the job, higher employee participation in…

This directory, which is based on data collected in 1993 and 1995 through surveys distributed to employers and educational providers throughout Ohio, is designed as a resource for employers wishing to review established basic skills training programs and locate other Ohio employers who have had first-hand experience with such programs. The guide…

The level of basic education skills among Nevada's adult work force and the effects of workers' basic skill levels on Nevada businesses were examined in a 1994 survey of 2,021 Nevada businesses employing 10 or more workers. Of the 1,163 businesses responding, 696 reported having 1 or more unskilled employees during May 1994. Of those 696…

Workplace literacy programs have been viewed as the way to raise workers' basic skills so they could perform more effectively in increasingly complex work environments. As these programs have proliferated, so have the number of issues associated with workplace literacy. Some issues are related to assumptions underlying the need for workplace…

Designed to assist educators in the development of reentry programs for adult learners, this guide provides information on the creation, operations, and outcomes of Project Chance, a reentry program initiated at Brooklyn College during the 1970's to serve ethnically diverse, lower and middle income women from the Brooklyn community. A foreward to…

This document is designed to engage workplace educators in thinking about the ideas and issues that the BEST [Better Education Skills Training] team have found to be important in shaping how they conduct their workplace education program. Its format is that of answers to questions that shape program planning and implementation. Students'…

This study was conducted to assess the educational needs of Wisconsin adults aged 16 years and older who had not graduated from and were not attending high school or had not received a high school equivalency credential. The project staff interviewed 1,680 Wisconsin residents who met these criteria by telephone, using computerized random digit…

By the late 1960s, the most offered courses in American community colleges were remedial reading, remedial writing, and remedial arithmetic. The success of the early efforts in community colleges was marginal at best, as is evidenced by a 1968 study indicating that nearly 90 percent of all remedial students failed or dropped out of remedial…

To meet the remedial-instructional needs of its recruits, the Coast Guard developed a basic skills program, entitled the Basic Educational Enrichment Program (BEEP), at its recruit training center in Cape May, New Jersey. Objectives of the program were to ensure that all graduates of Coast Guard recruit training possess at least eighth-grade…