This issue focuses on workplace education and includes the following articles: "After the Grant Is Over" (Connie Nelson); "Around to Stay" (Shirley Penn and Mary Zorn); "A Conversation with FOB: What Benefits Does Workplace Ed Offer the Provider?"; "Reading Work" (Tracy Defoe and Sue Folinsbee); "Much More than ABE" (Don Block and Lori…

Workplace literacy has been a recent addition to the field of literacy education and research, achieving a level of "commonsense" acceptability so that its meaning(s) or constructions have largely gone unchallenged. A study, therefore, explored the concepts of "work,""workers," and "literacy," not so much to…

The U.S. Secretary of Labor outlines the roles of the essential partners in work force development: employers, unions, educational institutions, and government. Her human resource agenda places high priority on workplace literacy and basic skills training. (SK)

Assesses the relationship between literacy abilities and on-the-job performance of electronics technicians from three employment levels (training, experienced, and supervisory). Finds no significant correlation between reading ability and job performance but finds that metacognitive aspects of literacy consistently and significantly correlated to…

Future jobs will require a higher level of literacy, yet the work force will contain a larger percentage of undereducated employees. Business must work with other sectors to fill the skill deficiency gap. Several interactive video programs have been developed to help employees improve basic skills. (CH)

Profiles of six workplace literacy programs in Canada identified a number of factors contributing to program success: funding resources, marketing/recruitment strategies, innovative organizational structures, support services, organizational philosophy, and commitment to the new training culture. (SK)

A method to increase use of modals by knowledge workers moves from workers' existing knowledge into four stages: (1) illustrating ambiguous things; (2) talking about doubt and certainty; (3) applying modals to models; and (4) reaching consensus about solutions. (SK)

Describes the process used in developing custom-tailored workplace basic skills programs. Examples show that learning objectives are mainly the same skills that are taught in more generic classes. The difference is that they use scenarios and text directly from the workplace. (Author/JOW)

Over 60% of 533 local government units responding (of 1,215) employ workers lacking basic skills, which impedes mobility and affects customer service. About 26% cope by providing basic skill training or making accommodations for lack of language or computational skills. (SK)

As the largest single employer in Los Angeles County and the largest county government in the nation, Los Angles County is heavily affected by demographic and workplace trends. Its unique diverse, multilingual population presents particular challenges in the preparation of a literate work force. (SK)

Looks at a literature-based approach to reading instruction and the whole-language approach to teaching adult literacy. Describes the instructional procedure used in a workplace literacy program serving employees of the Ohio State University hospital staff. (JOW)

A training course for workplace education teachers had five modules: the changing workplace, its impact on workers, nonteaching roles of the practitioner, teaching skills for the workplace, and program management. Flexible delivery modes and mentoring were also featured. (SK)

The functional approach to workplace literacy does not address a number of critical issues: aims and purposes, nature of stakeholders, worker participation in program planning, basis for distributing limited funds, consistency of state and federal guidelines, and congruence between program emphases and industry/worker needs. A more worker-centered…

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)

A manufacturing company's employees were given basic-skills classes. Company records and Tests of Adult Basic Education results before and after instruction demonstrated that the classes increased productivity and improved job performance of participants compared to a control group. (SK)