We are excited to announce that our valuable new resource for workplace education: Workplace Educator Training: A Guide to Creating Worker-Centered Education Programs, from the Massachusetts Worker Education Roundtable, is now available. You can view the manual's introduction, activities, and handout lists, and a sample activity on our Web site, www.umass.edu/roundtable/projects/trainingman.html. You can also print out an order form from the Web site.

Workplace Educator Training is a manual for teachers, program coordinators, union representatives, and others interested in creating worker-centered education programs. While there are many resources out there for workplace education, this manual is special because it looks at workplace education in unionized work sites. It helps teachers and others unfamiliar with unions understand the unique benefits, complexities, and challenges of labor-management workplace education. The manual can also be used for workplace education programs at non-unionized work sites, workforce development programs, and other settings.

The manual contains over 60 training activities for teachers, program coordinators, union reps, and others, new to the field or experienced, who want to learn more about workplace education. There are over 100 useful handouts accompanying these activities, as well as a Readings Collection of over 850 pages that comes with the manual.

Workplace Educator Training uses learner-centered activities that engage people in discussion, elicit and build on their experience, and encourage critical analysis and strategies. Activities include small and whole group discussion, scenarios, skits, and readings. You can use this manual to create short workshops, day-long or even week-long trainings. You can use the handouts and readings as resources in themselves.

The manual focuses on basic skills workplace education, including English for Speakers of Other Languages and Adult Basic Education, but many activities can be adapted for those involved in job training, pre-employment classes, higher education preparation for workers, or union leadership education.

Training activities are divided into five sections, each with a series of accompanying handouts. These include:

• Overview presents an overview of workplace education, including funding sources, steps needed to develop programs, and advantages and challenges of work site-based programs.
• Workplace needs analysis describes how to conduct a needs analysis to discover workers' skill needs, issues, and interests.
• Labor-management setting explores employer, union, and worker goals and concerns for workplace education, development of common program goals, and strategies for scenarios in labor-management workplace education.
• Classrooms and curriculum explores worker-centered teaching and curriculum development, and unique challenges in workplace classrooms.
• Assessment and evaluation addresses how to assess workers' needs, and evaluation of program impact on workers, the work site, and union.

For more information, please visit www.umass.edu/roundtable/projects/trainingman.html to view a description of manual contents and a sample activity, and to print out an order form. You can also call the Massachusetts Worker Education Roundtable at 617-983-3667.

Connie Nelson is the director of Roundtable, a consortium of union-based workplace education programs. She can be reached at: connie_nelson@hotmail.com
Jenny Lee Utecht is the training and curriculum coordinator at Roundtable. She can be reached at: jennyu@mindspring.com