By Tony Pugh
McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON ? President Barack Obamas recent proposal to train 2 million Americans with skills that will lead directly to a job barely scratches the surface of one of the nations most vexing labor problems.
The skills gap between what employers need and job applicants offer has become a drag on the economy, with nearly 3 million jobs unfilled even with high unemployment.
Researchers at Georgetown University say that by 2018, nearly two-thirds of US jobs will require some education or training beyond a high school diploma but not necessarily a bachelors degree. But large swaths of the US labor force lack the basic math and language skills needed for postsecondary education courses and the career-training programs that many specialized jobs require. Many who try to overcome these deficiencies through underfunded adult basic-education classes endure waiting lists or end up leaving before completing the courses.
But a handful of states, working with private foundations, local community colleges and area employers, are redesigning their adult basic-education programs to provide career training and remedial course work ? reading, writing, language and math ? at the same time.
The community colleges consult with area employers to determine which skills are most in demand so participants have the best chance of finding work quickly. The approach has been shown to be effective for jobs in fields as diverse as healthcare, advanced manufacturing, transportation and logistics and professional services.
What were trying to do is get away from these long sequences where theyre stuck in a traditional adult basic-education program for a year or longer, and only when they get their GED are they permitted to enroll in college. There are adult learners that we can double down on and essentially wipe out months of their time and effort by doing two things at once, said Barbara Endel, the program director at Jobs for the Future, a Boston-based national nonprofit organization thats helping states revise their adult-education programs.
After losing her job at a Walmart in 2010, 35-year-old Carolina Hernandez of Louisville, Ky., wanted to attend the Jefferson Community and Technical College and become a certified nursing assistant. But her math and writing skills were only at the junior high level because she left school in the ninth grade to help support her family when her mother was stricken with cancer.
A partnership between the college and the Jefferson County Public Schools allowed Hernandez to take remedial courses alongside college-level biology and sociology ? at the college.
The adult-education courses, taught by school-district instructors, also helped Hernandez with her evening studies to earn a GED certificate.
Over the next year, Hernandez obtained not only her GED diploma but also her nursing assistants certificate, passed the state exam and got a job at a nursing and rehabilitation center. This allowed her to leave welfare. Shell soon start work on a registered-nursing degree and hopes one day to earn a doctorate in social work.
Merging job training and literacy skills was pioneered in Washington state in 2004 through Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training.
Designed to serve the states growing non-English-speaking immigrant community, I-BEST offered English as a Second Language and vocational training simultaneously.
I-BEST now operates in all 34 of Washington states community and technical colleges. Evaluations have found that I-BEST students are 15 times more likely to complete their job training than other students with similar deficiencies in standard adult education programs.
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