Contextualized IELCE for the Employees of Mountain F. Enterprises
Submitted By: Steven Casperite
Sierra Joint Consortium
Website: placeronline.org
Type of Practice: Learner Transition
Program Area(s): ESL / EL Civics / Citizenship, CTE / Workforce Prep / Pre-apprenticeship
Region: Northern California
Consortia Involved: Sierra Joint Consortium
Program Overview
The head of Professional Development for Mountain F. Enterprises approached regional adult schools and community college programs to get support in creating a contextualized IELCE program to meet the need of their employees (currently 2300), of whom 60% are non-English speakers. In response, Place School for Adults created a blended (hyflex) model of instruction in which the students attend up to three weeks of in-person instruction (based on student needs and skill level).
The Program of Practice
The head of Professional Development for Mountain F. Enterprises approached regional adult schools and community college programs to get support in creating a contextualized IELCE program to meet the need of their employees (currently 2300), of whom 60% are non-English speakers. The company is a part of the forestry industry and has a large portion of the PG&E contracts for clearing trees and shrubbery from power lines. The employees work an average of 40 - 60 hours a week and needed an innovative and flexible model of instruction delivery contextualized to their workforce and ELL needs.
The Response
PSA, working in collaboration with Mountain F. Enterprises, has been in the process over the past two years of creating an innovative and flexible learning model contextualized to workplace language and skills needed by the employees to do their daily work and advance within the company.
The Unique Features of the Program
Over the two years, Placer School for Adults (PSA) has innovated a model of instruction delivery that allows the maximum level of flexibility possible to ensure that students can enroll and persist in the learning environment created. This is a blended (hyflex) model of instruction in which the students attend up to three weeks of in-person instruction (based on student needs and skill level). During the three weeks, students are given instruction in using an online learning platform, how to meet weekly online with their instructor, and CASAS tested to attain student learning levels. Once this is completed, the students may borrow a laptop from PSA or use their own at-home computer devices. The students then meet with their instructor online (up to) three times a week for facilitated learning and work asynchronously on out-of-class assignments based on the in-person facilitated instruction. The instruction modules introduced by the instructors are contextualized to student learning levels, based on materials and skills taught by the staff of Mt. F Enterprises, such as tree work, safety, workplace protocols, etc., and also tied to aligned COAAPS that address workplace skills and workforce needs (32 and 37 as an example).
What makes this program unique is that it is tailored to the specific needs of an industry sector partner in which the language skills are aligned to learning needs and contextualized to particular workforce needs, delivered in a blended (hyflex) model of instruction tailored to the times and days of the student's needs, and is revised through an ongoing partnership with Mountain F Enterprises input and collaboration.
The need for instruction by just this one industry sector partner far outstrips the capabilities of just the PSA resources. With this stated, PSA is working with other adult school partners in our consortium and our region to scale this model to the needs across the region.
The Outcome
The outcome of this effort, as supported by our data reported in TOPS Enterprise (TE), is that our ESL/IELCE offerings at our school and within our consortium have grown by over 100%. At this time, PSA is serving 150 -180 of the 500 employees of Mt F Enterprises (MFE) that require contextualized ELL/IELCE offerings. By working with the consortium and regional partners, PSA will be able to support the needs of both MFE and other industry sector partners in a rapidly growing forestry industry. In addition, this model can be scaled and duplicated to meet the needs of different industry sectors both regionally and at the state level.