Do the adult learners in your program need jobs? Better jobs? Are some or all of them learning English or improving their literacy to find a job or earn more money? Employment is increasingly the main reason for adult learners' partic ipation in ABE programs. But not all ABE programs know how to make their programs relevant to their students' job needs. The SABES Workforce Development Initiative is here to help.

What Is Workforce Development?
Workforce development is a relatively new field designed to address the needs of both workers, potential workers, and employers by supplying high-quality programs and services that train, educate, support, and assist workers in entering and advancing in the workplace. Workforce development utilizes a dual-customer model that tries to address the current skills shortage where large segments of the population lack some of the skills needed to succeed in today's economy.

Workforce development uses several strategies to address this skills shortage. By addressing both the supply side (the skills of the current and potential workforce and their need for good jobs) and the demand side (employers' need for workers with certain levels and kinds of skill), there is an attempt to create a "win-win" strategy. "Labor exchange" and "workforce development" complement each other by combining the two components preparing workers for, and matching them with, jobs. Many organizations, public and private, have sprung up in recent years to in an attempt to connect these two parts of the equation. Labor market intermediaries try to connect workers with various skills and needs with employers and jobs.

How Does Workforce Development Overlap With Adult Literacy Programs?
Workforce development overlaps with adult literacy programs in several ways. ABE tries to assist learners in acquiring many of the skills needed in the workplace-not only literacy, but also the soft skills and interpersonal skills needed for successful employment. A variety of "wrap-around" services are needed for workers with low skills, low literacy, little work experience, low income, and/or entry-level jobs to be able to move toward "family economic self-sufficiency." Wrap around skills include child care, transportation, counseling and advocacy services, and support while transitioning into jobs and for quite some time afterwards. Adult literacy and ongoing learning are frequently needed not only to enter a job, but to stay there, succeed, and even advance up the em-ployment ladder. Otherwise, workers often get stuck in a cycle of en- try-level, low-paid jobs, unable to advance or to move toward family-sustaining wages.

In the words of Massachusetts state legislator Mary Grant, ABE is "the backbone of the workforce development system." Without ABE programs to help adults become more literate and to develop basic skills, employers would have even greater difficulty finding skilled workers, and workers would have even greater difficulty finding and keeping good jobs.

ABE programs can help provide students with a scaffolding for employability or advancement on the job, but only if they know how to incorporate workforce development into their programs. This process involves assisting learners in working with the official workforce development system, and partnering with employers, workforce development agencies, and local job training organizations in the community. By establishing partnerships with other agencies, ABE programs can share the workload and expertise with others. ABE programs mainly need to know how to locate, access, and use access workforce development resources. This is where SABES can help.

Workforce Development Initiative: Resources for You
In 2004 SABES started a new statewide initiative to assist ABE programs in building their capacity for involvement in workforce development. SABES now has a workforce development coordinator in each of the five SABES regions of Massachusetts, plus a statewide workforce development coordinator based at World Education, to help adult literacy programs learn to become more involved in workforce development. (See contact information below.) These specialists also serve to educate workforce development agencies and programs about ABE, including how to utilize their expertise in developing sound educational programs and practices; design workplace education programs; hire students from ABE programs; and improve the literacy of the current and future workforce.

Over the past year, the SABES Workforce Development Initiative has begun establishing good relationships with the public and community-based workforce development system statewide, locally, and regionally. The Initiative has also offered workshops to train ABE programs and practitioners to integrate employability, job readiness, and occupational skills into ABE programs. It has also helped to connect ABE providers with the workforce development system in their areas, including the Workforce Investment Boards, the One-Stop Career Centers, and job skills training providers in their communities.

In addition to offering workshops, the Initiative has been collecting promising practices based on some of the excellent work and model programs developing across the state. These practices illustrate the integration of workforce development into ABE programs; the establishment of partnerships that connect ABE and employment/employability, and the development of collaborations with local businesses and employers that help low-income and LEP workers connect with jobs or advance on the career ladder.

Over the next year, SABES will be doing even more in workforce development. All SABES regions encourage practitioners to connect with their regional workforce development representative to enhance their program's ability to help ABE students connect with employment and e mployability needs.

What Is SABES Doing to Help ABE Programs Build Workforce Development Capacity?
In addition to the activities described above, SABES is engaging in a number of other approaches to strengthen the workforce development system in Massachusetts. These include:

• holding joint orientations for Career Centers and ABE programs to learn about each others' activities and help develop agreements between them;
• holding workshops to train ABE program staff to develop partnerships with employers, workforce investment boards, develop contextualized curriculum and workplace education programs, and form career ladder projects; providing customized technical assistance to ABE programs that want to incorporate job readiness and/or occupation, industry, or sector-specific content into their ABE curriculum;
• helping ABE programs learn how to identify and approach potential employer partners, market ABE programs and services to businesses, and locate information on local job openings;
• educating the business sector about the value and benefits they and their employees derive from existing ABE programs, and
• involving businesses in becoming champions for adult literacy, participating in statewide advocacy, for policies that help promote resources, education, and support for the integration of ABE and workforce development.