The National Workplace Literacy Program provides grants to partnerships of business, labor, and educational organizations to develop model programs for teaching job-related basic skills. These projects are yielding information about promising practices, effective program elements, and barriers to implementation. (SK)

This paper validates the concept of exemplary practice in work-based education (WBE) programs. The validation uses two theoretical frameworks: Social Cognitive Career Theory, and Billett's research on workplace learning. The empirical component of the validation study consists of two widely differing case studies of high school students in work…

Three National Workplace Literacy Program-funded projects were evaluated. Two statewide projects were institutionalized with supporting state structures. The community college program was not considered mission central and was discontinued after funding ended. Union involvement, learner participation, curriculum development, and staff training…

This guide, based on the Model Workplace Literacy Training Program for Indiana State Employees established at the Indiana Women's Prison in 1991, provides practical advice on developing workplace literacy programs. The guide is organized in six chapters, following an introduction that describes the origins of the Indiana program and outlines the…

A special demonstration project investigated the use of portfolio assessment in several adult basic education settings, including workplace education programs and science courses for adult high school equivalency students. Built upon a 1993-94 project that pilot tested a portfolio assessment process, the current project was based on two…

A JTPA/FEL (Job Training Partnership Act/Family English Literacy) demonstration project is reported that involves a partnership between the Lao Family Community (LFC) of Minnesota, the City of St. Paul, and St. Paul Public Schools/Adult Basic Education. The goal is to provide workplace literacy instruction to refugees with limited English…

The globalization of business has influenced the development of customized, job-specific workplace literacy programs. Work-centered participatory literacy receives support from both business and labor and additional impetus from the National Literacy Act of 1991. The worker of the future will be a thinking and communicating problem solver. The…

This report summarizes the 18 programs that have received Governor's Workforce Excellence Awards in Ohio over the past 3 years. The 18 award winning programs (based in companies employing from 75 to 16,000 employees) focus on the basic literacy, thinking, and personal skills that every Ohio worker must possess. They were selected from nearly 100…

This document consists of two publications that were developed to help employees of a health system's department of food and nutrition improve their department's documentation. Included in the first publication, "Improving Department Documentation," are the following: a self-assessment designed to help employees rate their skills in completing…

The National Workplace Literacy Program forges dynamic partnerships among businesses, workers, and educators facilitating the transition from yesterday's work environment to tomorrow's. The program's success is indicated by high retention rates, organizational acceptance, and intense grants competition. Valid and reliable measures are needed that…

This resource book provides information on developing a workplace literacy program, descriptions of Florida Workplace Literacy Programs, and an annotated bibliography of resources. An introduction discusses the problem of basic skills deficiencies, projections that indicate the problem will increase, the Florida context, and benefits realized when…

This report presents abstracts and evaluative reviews for 58 exemplary workplace education products. An overview of the selection process and a guide to the content of the documents appear first. Products are grouped by the projects that produced them and arranged in alphabetical order by state in which they were produced. Abstracts and evaluative…

The Massachusetts Workplace Literacy Consortium was funded through a 3-year National Workplace Literacy Program grant. During the second grant year, the consortium operated 25 program sites that were almost evenly divided between health care and manufacturing. The following were the primary reasons programs were started: reduce error and waste…

This document describes the AFL-CIO's Upgrading and Career Ladder Program (UCLP), which creates a system of structured, work-based learning integrating on-the-job training with related theoretical instruction. The UCLP has the following objectives: to meet workers' skill upgrading and occupational mobility needs; to encourage unions and employers…

In April 1991, Enterprise State Junior College and MacArthur State Technical College established a rural workplace literacy demonstration project in partnership with adult basic education, seven employers, and a labor organization. The project served 615 persons in classes offered at the 2 colleges, 4 partner locations, and 3 additional worksites.…