This manual provides guidelines for developing and implementing employee educational programs with the cooperation of unions and management. It establishes the need for such programs by explaining the current and future demographics of the workplace, then suggests ways to determine the need for education in any particular company. Information…

This guide examines organized labor's views on adult literacy. It also describes several union-sponsored workplace education programs and suggests how a union can plan and operate a worker-centered literacy program. The book is organized in three parts. The first part examines workplace literacy in four chapters that cover the following: the…

Since little attention has been given to defining a role for industry in the professional development of educators, the need exists for an administrative structure that facilitates jointly-sponsored in-service education with planning to identify participants, determine individual objectives and work stations, to supervise work experience, and to…

The Columbia-Willamette Skill Builders Consortium was formed in early 1988 in response to a growing awareness of the need for improved workplace literacy training and coordinated service delivery in Northwest Oregon. In June 1990, the consortium received a National Workplace Literacy Program grant to develop and demonstrate such training. The…

A workplace literacy demonstration project was implemented through a partnership among the Michigan Department of Education, Michigan Institute for Adult Learning and Literacy, and the United Auto Workers/General Motors (UAW/GM) Human Resource Center. Competency-based, job-related foundation skills training was provided for 400 employees, and…

A workplace literacy partnership program model was demonstrated at four Chrysler plants in Indiana. Objectives were to improve workers' individual skills, enhance personal productivity, and increase work force job security and plant competitiveness. During the 3-month start-up phase, project staff worked with management and labor representatives…

The Ohio State University, Inland Fisher Guide Division of General Motors, and United Auto Workers Local 969 formed a collaborative partnership in 1990 to train employees whose inadequate literacy skills made them unable to respond to the requirements of "synchronous manufacturing" (or "just in time" production). One of the…

Anodizing, Inc., Teamsters Local 162, and Mt. Hood Community College (Oregon) developed a workplace literacy program for workers at Anodizing. These workers did not have the basic skill competencies to benefit from company training efforts in statistical process control and quality assurance and were not able to advance to lead and supervisory…

Projects funded during the first year of operation of the National Workplace Literacy Program were examined. Activities included a review of research literature, analyses of data from 29 of the 37 first-year projects, and site visits to 6 projects. The research literature suggested the following elements of successful workplace literacy programs:…