It’s 3:30 on a recent Wednesday afternoon at Tower Manufacturing Corp. in South Providence, and a graduation party is under way.
Upstairs in the break room abutting the shop where workers assemble switches, boxes of pizza, bottles of soda, and a bakery cake await the nine women employees, all Asian, who amble in, their shift complete. They are coming to celebrate their completion of a 16-week English literacy course provided by the Providence Plan, a U.S. Housing and Urban Development-funded nonprofit that works to revitalize inner-city communities.
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Some of the students are from China. Others are from Thailand or Cambodia. All had little ability to speak English when they were hired. But now, after four months of reporting to the company break room after work for classes, two afternoons per week, their skills have improved..
”Take some pizza,” instructs Bob Garand, the plant manager. Then he admonishes those chatting in their native tongue: “Remember your English – that’s what this is about.”
The scene at Tower is something that Joseph M. Timmins, senior manager of the Providence management consulting firm of Sansiveri, Kimball & McNamee LLP, would like to see repeated at manufacturers in enterprise zones throughout the city. His company is responsible for helping them take advantage of the Providence Plan’s subsidized literacy classes.
It’s been difficult so far. Doors have been slammed in his face. But he maintains that companies that participate are pleased by the results. The more literate a company’s employees, he said, the more productive that company will be.
”Companies at first are a little reluctant to go for it,” Timmins said. “But no company that’s gone through it (has regretted it).”
As the business consultant, Timmins visits manufacturers and assesses their needs. Literacy classes are then tailored to fit each company’s specific goals. For example, classes focus on words and phrases that employees need specifically for their jobs. They go over personnel policies and safety features.
Some of the production and safety problems that companies face could be reduced if workers were able to better understand their supervisors, said Sally Gabb, director of adult programs at the Genesis Center, a Providence nonprofit that provides work-site literacy and other programs.
”It needs to be all right for a worker to say, ‘I didn’t understand,” Gabb said. “Companies lose when people (pretend) to understand when they don’t so (that) they won’t appear stupid.”
Workers with little English proficiency at Tower and other manufacturers typically get their jobs through a friend already at the company who speaks English relatively well. And generally, the more English-literate work with supervisors in training and helping the workers communicate. At Tower, Garand said those who recommend potential workers with little English speaking ability must agree to act as that person’s interpreter if needed.
Timmins admitted that no one will become a fluent English speaker in just 16 weeks. But he noted that it is possible to learn some specific skills that will help workers do their jobs better. Mary Ryder, who taught the Tower workers who elected to take the course, said she used company literature as her learning materials. For example, though the students did not take tests, they were required to fill out forms in English to demonstrate their abilities. The same model is used at other manufacturing sites.
The inability to read and write at a high level is a problem state and nationwide. According to the National Adult Literacy Survey, conducted by the U.S. Department of Education, 19 percent – plus or minus 5 percent – of the adult population in Rhode Island is at a ‘level one’ (out of a possible four) skill level when their quantitative skills, reading skills, and their ability to understand documents were tested.
By comparison, the rate of adults with a skill level of one is 16 percent in Massachusetts, 16 percent in Connecticut, 12 percent in New Hampshire, 15 percent in Maine, and 12 percent in Vermont, according to the survey.
It is believed that a person must have a skill level of three in order to obtain his or her GED, said Robert Mason, of the state Department of Adult Education. By comparison, a person with a skill level of one would be able to identify a country in short article but would be unable to locate an intersection on a street map, according to information provided with the survey.
Still, many companies resist government-sponsored classes, Timmins said. Some fear outside interference. And others worry that if they train their workers, “they’re going to get better jobs elsewhere,” Timmins said. “I hate to say it, but it’s the truth.”
But that hasn’t been the concern at Tower, which is considering the possibility of holding more classes. Not all employees were willing to participate in the unpaid classes, however.
”There were some girls out there who said, ‘No pay? No school,'” said Garand, gesturing to the shop floor outside the break room.
But Joseph Ritchie, vice president of finance for the company, noted that those who did participate will make the company more efficient because they will be better able to communicate with their supervisors.
