A discussion of the literacy education needs of the Hispanic community in the United States provides a profile of the Hispanic population and offers a plan of action for educational programming. At 7 million, the illiterate Hispanic population comprises one-third of functionally illiterate Americans. This subgroup is diverse, with as much as half…

A minicourse pilot project was designed by the Massachusetts Department of Education to meet the staff training and development needs of workplace educators in the National Workplace Literacy Program. During the course, various activities and group configurations were used to help teachers apply modeled approaches to their own teaching contexts,…

Analysis of the Project ALERT (Adult Literacy Enhanced & Redefined through Training) Workplace Literacy Project produced a description of the needs assessment process, steps, and instruments that can be used for needs assessment in other workplace education projects. The data for the needs assessment were collected through the following methods: a…

This paper presents an overview and suggestions about the development of occupational and skill clusters by the Vocational-Technical Education Consortium of States (V-TECS), based on the observations of the executive director of the organization. Aspects reviewed include the following: development of occupational and skill clusters; classification…

A collaborative project involved Collins and Aikman, Inc., Pitt Community College, and the U.S. Department of Education in an effort to improve the literacy level of the company's work force in order to increase productivity. A pretest of about 400 of the company's 513 workers in 1 division uncovered educational needs in reading and mathematics…

The U.S. workplace needs to be transformed. Corporations should replace an approach to production and service that pits labor against management with an approach that unites management and labor in the pursuit of enhanced quality, enhanced responsiveness to the customer, and enhanced productivity. Human resource development is critical to this…

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…

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'…

Workers in five departments of the J.P. Stevens Plant in Clemson, South Carolina, participated in a workplace literacy project that was designed to increase participants' literacy and job skills and increase the literacy training efforts of textile plants in the Southeast. Major project activities included the following: identification of the…

An 18-month, 3-phase study examined formal employer-sponsored basic skills instruction in small- and medium-sized firms. Data were gathered through the following methods: in-depth case studies of 72 small and medium firms in 5 states, a series of linked national surveys of 11,000 randomly selected firms, follow-up telephone surveys of 4,317 of…

This report was based on telephone interviews with 86 individuals from 53 workplaces across Canada. The study sample included a diverse range of workplace types and sizes from both large and small communities. Of the eligible workplaces contacted, 93% were able to participate. The interview questions focused on why workplaces started basic skills…

This training manual deals with developing and implementing work force education (workplace literacy) programs. It consists of three sections and an appendix. Discussed in the first section are the scope and purpose of work force education, work force education participants, types of basic skills problems and solutions, and the need for…

This monograph, written for persons interested in promoting company-funded workplace basic skills programs, addresses the following 13 key issues: (1) companies' rationale for investing in workers' basic skills; (2) the factors that need to be in place for a workplace basic skills program to be adopted; (3) who in the company makes the decision to…

This annotated bibliography describes 42 documents dealing with work force and workplace literacy. Annotations are provided for 17 how-to guides and assessment tools, 19 policy reports and research papers, and 6 surveys. The following are among the topics covered in the individual documents described: job-related literacy training, basic skills in…

This book is a practitioner's guide to developing literacy training programs for workers. Titles of the 28 chapters and epilogue are as follows: "Understanding the History and Definitions of Workplace Literacy" (Askov, Aderman); "Understanding Literacy in the Canadian Business Context: Conference Board of Canada Study" (Hart);…