11/8/95

Mitch Emmons (emmonmb@mail.auburn.edu)

PROJECT AIMED AT IMPROVING BASIC SKILLS IN ALABAMA WORKFORCE

AUBURN -- Auburn University's Department of Vocational and Adult Education is working on a project to help improve basic skills among Alabama workers so they can more readily adapt to changing technology.

The Workplace Basic Skills Training Project is designed to develop a framework of qualified workplace education specialists, teach industry trainers how to develop job-specific curriculum and to develop a workplace education teacher training manual, says Paula Smith, a workplace curriculum specialist with the College of Education

Changes in demographics, the diversity among new workers, new management philosophies that give more decision-making power to workers and evolving technologies indicate a need to provide workers with more basic-skills training, Smith says.

But Smith says there is no program that enables traditional educators to effectively teach in an industrial environment.

"We're trying to bridge the gap between traditional education and business," she said. "This project is designed to help adult education teachers learn some of the business aspects of workplace education and to help the business representatives learn some of the educational aspects."

Smith said employers are gaining an understanding of the importance of encouraging their employees to attend classes, and teachers are learning to make academics more applicable to the trainee's jobs.

The program being developed at AU consists of a series of workshops where educators and business personnel come together to share ideas and learn about such topics as adults as learners, job task analysis, needs assessment, the value of job- specific curriculum, program evaluation and education resources.

"The purpose is to teach workers what they need to know to do their jobs," Smith said. "It can cover the whole realm of workplace literacy, including comprehension and communication skills and problem solving, and it touches heavily on technology."

While traditional teaching methods often are generic, Smith says teaching within the workplace relies heavily on such topics as plant flow charts, production forms, workplace vocabulary and machine diagrams as teaching aides.

"To be effective, the teachers have to learn a great deal about how the business operates," she said.

Smith and her State Department of Education colleagues are working closely with the Alexander City-based Russell Corp. in developing an industrial model for the program. Once developed, she said the model can be easily adaptable for use with any type industry.

nov95:AU-basicskills

CONTACT: Smith, 334/844-3817.