Adult education an important part of economic solution

Around the country, and right here in Rhode Island, the voices that support adult education and workforce development as an integral part of an overall strategy to improve the national and local economy cannot be ignored.
In April, a report prepared for the U.S. Department of Education by the National Research council of the National Academies declared that, “Virtually everyone needs a high level of literacy in both print and digital media to negotiate most aspects of 21st-century life, such as succeeding in a competitive job market.”
However, the report concluded, “according to the most recent survey estimate, more than 90 million adults in the United States lack the literacy skills needed for fully productive and secure lives.”
The report recommends these steps to bolster adult-literacy education in the Unite States:
&#8226 Build on and expand the infrastructure of adult-literacy education by using research and evaluation.
&#8226 Improve professional development and technical assistance.
&#8226 Provide options that improve persistence among adult learners.
&#8226 Provide sustained investment in a coordinated and systematic approach to program improvement, evaluation and research.
The report also concluded, “partnerships need to be developed among researchers, curriculum developers and administrators across the systems that serve adult learners. Enlisting business leaders and community groups in that effort is also important.”
In Rhode Island, that is already happening. Laurie White, president of the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce, declared at a recent roundtable focused on adult education and workforce development, “Workforce development. It is the issue.”
Meanwhile, the Rhode Island Economic Progress Institute, formerly known as the Poverty Institute, maintains that, “A skilled workforce is key to Rhode Island’s economic recovery and future competitiveness. Workers must have some level of post-secondary education or training to fill the middle-skill occupations that comprise the majority of Rhode Island’s jobs.”
To do that, the organization argues, “Rhode Island must increase state investments in workforce-skills training,” including restoring $2 million for basic-skills training and appropriating another $2 million for workforce-development activities of the Governor’s Workforce Board. Meanwhile, the state’s congressional delegation – all four of whom strongly support efforts to get behind adult education and workforce development – warned at the recent roundtable event that examined these issues that the current political environment in Washington includes a “very tough budget climate.”
Sen. Jack Reed, a Democrat and member of the Senate Appropriations Committee that considers federal funding for issues such as adult education and workforce development, said that despite the difficult environment, he anticipates “level funding” for these endeavors in the next budget, only enough to help 6,500 adult learners when an estimated 150,000 adult Rhode Islanders need this assistance.
The state’s congressmen and senators lamented stories they’ve heard across Rhode Island of companies with jobs to offer – but not enough qualified local job seekers to fill them.
“It’s awfully frustrating when there are jobs available but we just don’t have the skilled workers to fill those jobs,” Sen. Reed told the roundtable audience of nearly 100 at the Rhode Island Foundation. Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse told of recently visiting two Rhode Island companies and hearing the same story. “They told me, ‘We have jobs, we’re hiring’,” Whitehouse said.
Fellow Democrat and Rep. James R. Langevin said he recently encountered a company that has just hired 20 new workers. But only two Rhode Island applicants had the required skills to be hired.
Those of us who work each day in adult education and workforce development yearn to be able to help more of the thousands of Rhode Islanders who need our services. We will continue to do the best that we can to help our students to help themselves – and our economy. &#8226


Carol Holmquist is president and CEO of Dorcas Place Adult and Family Learning Center in Providence.

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