In attendance: Cathy Gannon, Kathleen Howell, Todd Lee, Connie Nelson, Patricia Pelletier, Andrea Perrault, David Rosen, Laurie Sheridan.

Updates/Announcements:

There is no news at the state level about what is happening between ABE and workforce development around potential consolidation, or shifts. The MWIB's ABE/ESOL subcommittee has met four times and drafted a set of recommendations to the MWIB that will be presented on Dec. 12, without specifics about particular funding streams or sources. It's clear that there will be a request for additional resources, especially for workplace education.

The City of Boston's ABE/workforce development task force (including Andrea, John and Laurie) held a very successful forum for funders where "white papers" addressing gaps between ABE/ESOL and workforce development/higher education/GED/employment were presented. Follow-up and next steps are in the works.

It's not clear when the next DOE RFP for workplace education will be released.

SABES Workforce Development activities

Training and technical assistance around the SABES "Integrating Career Awareness" curriculum is ongoing.

Ongoing sharing groups for workplace educators statewide, via videoconference.

Workshops on immigrant rights, multicultural issues in the workplace, introduction to workforce development for ABE practitioners, developing skills for ABE programs to work with employers, and worker rights, and many other recent or upcoming workshops.

Laurie distributed copies of the current SABES training calendar and upcoming workshops.

Process, criteria and terms for Advisory members

Laurie will poll current active Advisory members about continuing on the Advisory (those present agreed) and members agreed that as many members as possible should remain until at least the end of the current SABES workplan (July 2008). New members should agree to serve at least a 2-year term.

Nominations for new Advisory members

Laurie handed out a list of proposed nominees for the WFD Advisory and categories in need of filling. We are looking for an Advisory of about 20 members. Currently there are no active members from WIB's, and only one from a career center. Those who have expressed an interested in joining should be invited ASAP. It's a working Advisory, so only those agreeing to be actively involved should be invited.

We need to address:

• Geographic diversity (include Central MA and Western MA)
• Additional representatives from the workforce development system (WIBs, career centers, CommCorp)
• ABE Directors' Council
• CAP agencies

We should explore utilizing webinars for some Advisory meetings so people don't have to spend so much time traveling. We could meet in person occasionally, plus webinars or videoconferences.

The Advisory discussed and approved adding a non-working "advisory to the Advisory" for people who could not attend meetings but whose input would be valuable and important. Current Advisory members who are no longer active but wish to continue in this capacity will be asked to join this group.

The Advisory authorized Laurie to invite those nominees who are willing to become active Advisory members. She will include a packet of info about the Advisory, including a list of issues the group will be discussing.

Preliminary discussion and recommendations on SABES workplan for FY09 and following

The Advisory discussed recommendations for SABES' work in the next FY's workplan, including:

What is high on ACLS' priority list for ABE programs (not SABES)? It's important for the Advisory to recommend workforce development as a high priority in the next ABE RFP (which is being developed in FY09 for FY10).

The WIB Association supports addressing pre-vocational training, and it would be good to have input into the next RFP. This should show a direct link to jobs, we should explore the possibility of private funding (ACLS may be open to this).

What are the barriers to more ABE programs' getting involved in workplace education? Programs lack the capacity and resources to develop relationships with employers and employment sectors, and to develop workplace education programs. If they were provided specific staffing and resources, much more would be possible. ACLS should explore funding non-rates-based classes to enable programs to get more involved in workplace ed, and integrate workforce development into community-based programming. Programs need time and resources to develop their capacity and staff them up. SABES can help with this.

The DOE Workplace Ed RFP always attracts a small but high-quality group of applicants. SABES should work to expand the capacity of this group and other programs.

ACLS should put more resources into contextualizing ESOL curriculum. SABES could become a center for doing this. There is no central clearinghouse for ESOL vocational curriculum and there should be, and it should be share-ready. But programs and employers can't just use contextualized curriculum "off the shelf." There is much need and room for developing sector-specific contextualized curriculum, ready to be tailored for particular workplaces and employers. SABES (and Roundtable) can help develop these curricula and tailor them for employers/unions. (Contextualizing curriculum is not specific to workforce development-any content area can be contextualized and programs and practitioners taught how to do that-in fact, SABES and Roundtable provide such training).

All these should incorporate distance learning-it's not separate from workforce development but part of it.

SABES and ACLS want professional development to happen with entire programs, see it integrated across the program. This should include workforce development. SABES is trying to move from mostly providing one-time workshops for an individual or two from a program, to working over time with entire programs and over time with practitioners to really move the field towards more involvement in workforce development. Currently targeting a few key programs to incorporate program-wide part or all of the "Integrating Career Awareness" curriculum across classrooms and programs. SABES has begun bundling workshops, PDP's (Professional Development Points), certificates. These are steps in the right direction. We need a pool of practitioners. One practitioner can become a champion, but then programs run into resource limits. One champion in a program does not usually move the whole program.

Workplace education in isolation is not going far. Missing pieces include the need to build capacity for workplace ed. It's not just a teacher training issue. Programs needs to develop a business plan to explore workplace ed: analyze the market, how to approach a business, evaluation your services. Significant program development is needed. There have to be programs that want to do this. Not just because they want new revenue streams, but because it works-for students. ABE programs need to become more entrepreneurial. Till now, the skills training organizations have been more interested in this than ABE programs-under WIA, people were forced to.

People and programs need professional development. We're currently doing practitioner training, not program development. We need directors to buy in. We could develop an assessment tool for program directors to determine whether workplace education is right for them. Usually, it's an add-on for a program. Some programs see other programs in their area doing workplace ed and think it's taken care of. Just as the Worker Education Program at U. Mass. Dartmouth has a teacher on staff who does this, we could have that in each region or city. We've long felt that workplace education should be done regionally. (This was documented in the old National Workplace Literacy program.), and in Metro West's Workplace Education Consortium. What's needed is Workforce Development Coordinators at the program level. Programs want to do workforce development, and know there is money in workplace education. What are the skills needed? We should look at what successful directors have done. If ACLS funded and specified a role for program development in workplace education, SABES could shift from professional development to program development (and be effective). This could cluster geographically. It's a huge leap for a program from ABE to workplace education. It requires dedicated staff.

There is a focus at DOE on evaluation. Current attention is on goal-setting, of which workforce development is a part. How can goal-setting remain student-centered? There is a lot of accountability to the Feds. Is there a role of SABES in initial assessment? Outcomes-programs are evaluated by DOE using a monitoring tool. Programs fear being held accountable for employment outcomes. No one knows what students mean by wanting to "get a job" or "get a better job."-everyone wants this! We assume this is about income-but we don't know what it covers.

On the policy side, in dealing with learners' goals and adult roles, we should make ABE more related to workforce development. It's not "a liberal arts education," education for education's sake, thought that is valuable-it's about adults' roles in society. We need to address this in the next SABES workplan-and ask ACLS to address it in the next five-year ABE RFP. It's important to advocate for this as an integrated whole-not something on the side.

SABES should also continue working with interested practitioners-not just programs. There is a strong need for dedicated individuals to become "champions" in their programs for workforce development.

What are the barriers to more ABE programs' getting involved with workforce development or partnering with businesses/unions, including providing workplace education? This requires specific sets of skills: program directors don't have time or know-how, ABE program staff don't know how to talk with businesses or build those relationships. SABES can help facilitate this. SABES and Roundtable provide workshops on "Marketing to businesses," "Unlocking the skills to promote your ABE program to Businesses," and "Building partnerships with businesses and unions." But, it's hard to do any of these without designated staff at the program.

Programs need to be able to hire a job developer or workforce development advocate/liaison to facilitate relationships with employers and promote partnerships. SABES can facilitate linkages between AE programs and businesses in their community or region. Utilize the Community Partnerships for this? No-they are too local. Within WIB regions? SABES could help ABE programs come together to work with a specific employment sector in their area. ACLS should provide funds on this basis. It requires specific targeted funding. The regions involved should reflect the scope of the labor market --people don't always work where they live, or vice versa. But regional collaborations are hard.

SABES can help programs develop enthusiasm and realize the benefits of these partnerships. Programs are eager to leverage additional funding resources but lack the capacity or the resources to do this. Programs have been known to turn away companies that need a workplace ed program or partnership, because the program doesn't know how to enter this area. SABES could help. There are some constraints, e.g., programs in the public schools or community colleges are unable to enter this area because of constraints or territorial issues. But more community-based ABE programs could do it.

What about a SABES role in the Workforce Competitiveness Trust Fund? Making more of the funds available for ABE programs and for workplace ed programs? Does ABE play a role in WCTF in any region? (probably not). This is a missed opportunity. ACLS is involved in statewide planning for this. We should be urging ABE directors to get involved in their regions. This would also require outreach from the WIB's to ABE programs in their regions.

Updates from Advisory members on related work

The United Way of Mass Bay model, which graphically illustrates the "pipeline" of moving people from crisis to stability (and sometimes back and forth, forward and back), is a good illustration that we should use constantly. We can show, "This is where ABE fits in," etc. That graphic is based on a tool developed by the CAP agencies (Patricia helped develop it) and we should all get behind this tool. It looks at all the factors that go into moving clients from crisis to stability and self-sufficiency.

Future meetings

Each Advisory meeting should focus on one main topic in the future. Each meeting will focus on that issue for at least one hour, then address other issues and updates. Key topics coming up soon include the SABES workplan (FY09), and the upcoming SABES RFP from DOE.

The Advisory will need to dedicate one meeting just to the SABE workplan. Depending on the timetable, that may be in the late winter. Laurie will identify the timing and let members know ASAP.

One meeting will be dedicated to input for the upcoming SABES RFP. Timing will be determined and that meeting schedule also.

Send comments to: Laurie Sheridan

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