The Massachusetts Department of Education, Adult and Community Learning Services (ACLS) collaborates with the state's workforce development system to build connections that benefit our students in their quest to meet their employment-related goals. Over 60 percent of adults enrolled in ABE and ESOL programs are working, and many who are not employed are looking for work. The correlation between educational level and the ability to get and keep a job is high, as documented by a recent study published by the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University.(1) A GED no longer guarantees access to employment with family-sustaining wages. Many ABE students work in entry-level jobs and often hold more than one job to meet expenses. Building basic academic skills is critical for them to achieve their goals of gaining and retaining employment. When ABE and workforce development services are integrated or coordinated, students are likely to get ahead more quickly. The Workforce Investment Act (WIA) of 1998 formalized the connection of ABE and workforce development, and in FY06, activities sponsored by ACLS will continue and expand that connection because we understand the importance this relationship holds for our students' ability to improve their lives. ACLS activities with a workforce development focus include the following:

• Collaboration with One-Stop Career Centers: ACLS partners with Local Workforce Investment Boards (LWIBs) to support collaboration between ABE providers and career centers (Under WIA, adult education is a mandated partner of career centers in the workforce system). Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) exist between DOE and the sixteen workforce development regions. The MOU identifies the areas where our systems overlap as intake, assessment, and referral. Out-stationed ABE staff (local ABE program teachers or counselors) work in One-Stop Career Centers to help center clients who need basic skill development to improve their prospects for employment. Out-stationing is offered in 12 of the 16 workforce development regions. ACLS funds ABE programs for this part-time position.
• Appointments to LWIBs: ACLS works with workforce board directors to appoint representatives of ABE to the WIB Boards, ensuring that ABE has a seat at the table on local workforce development policy-making bodies (as WIA legislation specifies).
• Leveraging workforce development involvement and strategies through the five-year grant cycle: ACLS directs 12 percent of the regional funding for ABE programs through the regional workforce system. This, along with our joint monitoring of ABE programs during the five-year funding period, is intended to continue the collaboration that began through the joint review of ABE grant awards in each region. In FY05, the RFP prioritized integration or coordination with workforce development. Programs might propose to integrate services with an occupational training provider or a career center, coordinate services with a workforce development agency/entity, or integrate work readiness concepts into the ABE/ESOL classroom.
• Workplace Education: ACLS funds ABE providers to offer workplace education programs at the work site. All workplace education programs result from successful planning grants. The planning process allows providers to confer with the business and union (if there is a union) and to assess the needs of workers for basic skill development classes. It also allows for the assessment of employers' readiness to support that effort. Implementation grants fund classes held at or near the workplace that are contextualized with industry/workplace content. Businesses represent a variety of industry sectors, including manufacturing, education, retail distribution, hospitality, health/elder care, maintenance, and food service.
• SABES' Workforce Development Focus: ACLS funds SABES and the Massachusetts Worker Education Roundtable to address workforce development and workplace education by providing professional development opportunities for ABE practitioners. Each SABES center has staff dedicated to this priority area.
• Pilot projects and policy Groups: From 2002 to 2005, ACLS participated in the development and funding of pilot projects through interagency collaboration with the Department of Workforce Development, Commonwealth Corporation, the Division of Career Services (then DET) and the Department of Transitional Services. Building Essential Skills through Training (BEST) offered two separate design models: one targeted to incumbent workers to build their basic academic and occupational skills; the other (BEST: Older Youth) targeted the vulnerable older youth population (18-24) with innovative projects to improve participants' basic academic skills, to develop occupational skills and career awareness, and to assist them in getting jobs in the field that the project addressed. Collaboration in each project relied on the involvement of business, unions, career centers, and education and training providers. Other grants are now offered as the Bay State Works initiative.
• Reach Higher and Pathways to Success by 21: These are newer statewide policy initiatives managed by Commonwealth Corporation in which ACLS is active. Reach Higher, which includes representatives of ACLS in its advisory team, aims to improve access to community colleges for incumbent workers and to develop more certificate programs in high growth industry areas at the community colleges. The goal of Pathways to Success by 21 is to improve opportunities for vulnerable youth aged 16 to 21 to access education, counseling, job training, and employment.

The link between education and employment is often so critical to the motivation of ABE and ESOL students to succeed. To help students meet the goals they set for themselves, the Department of Education is committed to supporting them by continuing to develop strategic approaches to link the ABE and workforce development systems. For more information, contact Andrea Perrault, workforce development specialist at ACLS at 781-338-3852.

1. Sum, A., Khatiwada, I., Palma, S. (2004). Recent Trends in the Levels Distribution and Adequacy of the Annual Earnings of Massachusetts Workers: Implications for the Boston Workforce Development Initiative. Boston, MA: Northeastern University, pages 9-14.

Andrea Perrault is the statewide workforce development specialist at the Adult and Community Learning Services unit at the Massachusetts Department of Education. She can be reached at: aperrault@doe.mass.edu