Developing Career Capital in Adult Education Pathways
Submitted By: Stephanie Feger
Coast Adult Education Consortium
Website: https://www.cccd.edu/departments/education-services/coastadulted.html
Type of Practice: Learner Transition
Program Area(s): ESL / EL Civics / Citizenship, CTE / Workforce Prep / Pre-apprenticeship
Region: Orange County
Consortia Involved: Coast Adult Education Consortium
The Program of Practice
Connecting Education to the Workforce - Employers and education partners aim to develop and attract a talent pool that demonstrates reliability, accountability, and initiative. However, to reach disconnected adults requires a deeper understanding of the factors that create instability in students’ lives and developing robust systems that support retention and success.The project addressed this problem of practice by facilitating case management training for regional counselors that focused on working with adult students disconnected from higher education.
The Response
Case Management: Student-Centered Approaches and Facilitated Problem Solving Workshop - Case management is a multi-step process to support students by understanding their needs, available resources, and planning for follow up. Participating counselors collaborated with Hope Builders through a workshop and coaching sessions to define robust and intensive case management strategies that can be applied in the community college context. Working with Hope Builders counselors addressed the following questions: (1) What lenses can adult education practitioners use to better identify student needs and facilitate problem solving? (2) How can practitioners align these student-centered strategies in the context of their programs? (3) What models/scenarios from California Adult Education Program (CAEP) and individual practice can be applied? Through this work, counselors developed and shared examples and best practices that can be scaled up regionally. Participants assessed strategies and solutions and reported on results. Examples of the Case Management Posts were shared through the Orange County regional consortium and the regional adult education network.
The Unique Features of the Program
The Developing Career Capital in Adult Education Pathways is a collaboration of Orange County community colleges adult education programs. The project recruited counselors to explore and develop robust case management strategies to benefit adult learners. Hope Builders, an OC community-based organization facilitated an in-person workshop and follow up coaching activities. Counselors implemented and documented case management posts. This collection of posts provides examples of emerging and best practices that can be scaled up to better support adult learners.
The Outcome
Hope Builders facilitated a workshop and follow up coaching sessions with 20 counselors from eight Orange County community colleges. Counselors implemented and documented case management practices in their work with adult learners. Their implementation served as the basis for case management post from and for practitioners. Through their inquiry counselors developed and shared examples of emerging/best practices that were disseminated regionally. The counselors posts included the following topics:
1. Holistic Counseling Nurtures a Sense of Belonging in Students
2. Helping Adult ESL Students Access College Resources & Education
3. Building and Empowering Through Case Management and Community
4. Using Targeted Group Management Strategies to Support Adult Learners
5. Reflecting on the Strength Within to Revitalize Hope
6. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs as a Framework for Assessing & Facilitating Holistic Care
7. Using Planned Events to Improve Case Management for Project RISE Students
8. Student Focused Wrap Around Counseling Service
9. Retention Strategies for Adult Learners
10. Fostering a Bridge to Success: From Noncredit to College
11. Student Success: Bridging Case Management and Community Building for High School and Community College Learners
12. Building and Empowering through Case Management and Community