For the next 12 days, we hope you will join in this discussion to talk about non-academic skills that adult learners may need to be successful in postsecondary education and the workforce. This will be similar to the 12 Days of QR Codes discussion we did last year.
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The Teaching the Skills That Matter in Adult Education project (TSTM) trains teachers to integrate the skills that matter to adult students using approaches that work across critical topics. Using the project's tools and training, adult education teachers can teach the transferable skills students need in these critical contexts.
The 9 skills that matter are:
Pick one of these skills and share your ideas on how you help adults use this skill to support successful transition to postsecondary education and training or employment.
OR
Share what kind of evidence adult learners might be able to provide to show they have some of these skills.
Hi Chrissie. I’ve been working with World Education’s Personal and Workplace Success Skills Library to develop Voices from the Field case studies where practitioners use library resources to develop the program’s capacity to teach success skills. We coach programs to be explicit in teaching the skills and having students reflect on their own skills. Students have responded enthusiastically to this approach, often reporting that they can now confidently talk about their skills, such as teamwork or adaptability, in interviews and applications for work, skills training, or college.
In one Voices from the Field case study, entitled Critical Thinking Skills for Next Steps, the Asian American Civic Association (AACA) in Boston used the TSTM Health Literacy Toolkit with a focus on critical thinking to create an integrated health literacy awareness curriculum with their Next Steps ESOL classes. The classes researched three high interest health topics (Covid-19 vaccines, stress management & Hepatitis B, a disease that affects many first generation Asian and Pacific Islanders) by first using contextualized, accurate materials provided by local Boston healthcare partners. Throughout the unit, students developed analytical and research skills by asking questions and finding the answers to those questions through research, organizing information, and asking follow-up questions. This laid the groundwork for using critical thinking skills in their online research. In addition, building digital literacy skills helped students to critically evaluate the validity of the information they found online. All of the skills they learned will be useful as they move on to community college classes.
Thanks, Kathleen for this great example of combining local resources with the TSTM materials. I am also happy to see you mentioned the Personal and Workplace Success Skills Library because that is our Day Six feature! I hope others will share ways they are using the resources from the library.
Hello Chrissie and all, I think we can agree that these skills are essential for all of us -- NOT just for the adult learners in our programs. We all continue to enhance these skills throughout our lives. It's not as if one day we have totally mastered Navigating Systems or Critical Thinking, etc. We've seen remarkable learner engagement throughout the TSTM project in 30 plus states across the country. Adult learners readily recognize the importance of these central skills in their lives.
Here's a link to a TSTM lesson plan on introducing the central skills. This lesson plan includes a set of additional tools that can be used for instruction and/or assessment. These tools feature exit tickets, and activities for matching each central skill with the best definition/explanation and matching each central skill with a real life scenario that illustrates the skill. Here's a digital version of one of the scenario matching activities that I created this week.
It would be great to hear from TSTM teachers as well as others who would like to know more.
Cheers, Susan Finn Miller
Moderator, English Language Acquision Group
If you visited day one's Teaching Skills that Matter, you may have noticed that Workforce preparation skills was defined as-the knowledge, skills, and competencies that, when developed and demonstrated, prepare individuals to obtain or retain employment or to advance in the workforce. These skills include interpersonal and communication abilities such as teamwork, collaboration, and customer service; and workplace competencies including demonstrated professionalism, critical thinking, and systems thinking within their specific work setting.
Being able to define workforce preparation skills is important as more and more adult education programs begin to develop Integrated Education and Training (IET) programming. The IET Toolkit is a great resource to better understand the role workforce preparation skills play in IET development and implementation. From the IET Toolkit-
Section 203 of WIOA defines an IET program as:
…a service approach that provides adult education and literacy activities concurrently and contextually with workforce preparation activities and workforce training for a specific occupation or occupational cluster for the purpose of educational and career advancement.
To meet the requirements, IET programs must integrate the delivery of the three required activities: adult education and literacy activities, workforce preparation activities, and workforce training activities for a specific occupation or occupational cluster. An IET program must be part of a career pathway that leads to educational and career advancement and aligned with the state’s Adult Education Content Standards.
Are you part of an IET development team? If so, what workforce preparation skills are part of your IET?
One great resource for determining the non-academic skills that are needed to thrive in an occupation is O*NET OnLine. In addition to learning about skills, adults can explore education and training requirements, labor market information, work styles and values, how the occupation aligns to the Holland Code, and related occupations.
Since this website is text heavy and may be difficult for some adult learners to read, you can use Microsoft Edge as your web browser to view the site with the learner and then activate the Immersive Reader Tool. You can either click on the book icon in the address bar or use key F9 on your keyboard to activate Immersive Reader on Microsoft Edge.
If you have used O*NET OnLine with adult learners, comment in this discussion and share some activities you have had learners complete.
"The Employment and Training Administration (ETA) and industry partners collaborate to develop and maintain dynamic models of the foundation and technical competencies that are necessary in economically vital industries and sectors of the American economy. The goal of the effort is to promote an understanding of the skill sets and competencies that are essential to educate and train a globally competitive workforce.
The models serve as a resource to inform discussions among industry leaders, educators, economic developers, and public workforce investment professionals as they collaborate to:
Adult educators and learners can explore the competency models on CareerOneStop.org. The base of each model lists "personal effectiveness competencies" which include skills such as: professionalism, dependability, willingness to learn, and integrity. The "workplace competencies" level includes skills such as: teamwork, problem solving, decision making, and following directions.
How might you use the information in these models to support your instruction? How might you use the competency models with adult learners for career awareness and exploration?
"The Employability Skills Framework advances a unifying set of skills that cuts across the workforce development and education sectors based on an inventory of existing employability skills standards and assessments. The Employability Skills Framework was developed as part of the Support for States Employability Standards in Career and Technical Education (CTE) and Adult Education project, an initiative of the Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education, U.S. Department of Education. Framework development was guided by CTE, adult education, workforce development and business organizations, and twelve federal agencies."
The framework is listed below and you can access a handout for the framework HERE.
How have you used this framework in adult education or how might you use it to help adult learners be more prepared for the workforce?
The Personal and Workplace Success Skills Library is a collection of resources to guide the integration of personal and workplace success skills into curriculum and instruction, advising and coaching, assessment, and program design. These resources were selected for adult education, higher education, workforce development, and career and technical education programs serving adult and older youth learners and workers, including English language learners.
Personal and workplace success skills are the set of transferable skills that are critical for finding employment and advancing in a career pathway. They are also lifelong learning skills that enable us to be resilient and adaptive in an ever-changing labor market.
We hope that you will comment in the discussion which resources from this library you may have used and give a description of how you used the resources.
Thank you Chrissie. As I've been working on the PWSS Library, I'd love to hear how people are using the Library, too! When you're there, visit the Voices From the Field section to read about how programs have used some of the resources. We've noticed that programs often use a combination of resources in order address their needs, especially a framework with an instructional resource or two. I'd also encourage teachers to read the section my colleagues wrote called Teaching the Skills. Please let me know if you have any questions. I can be reached at kathleen_oconnell@worlded.org
The Transitions Integration Framework (TIF) is the cornerstone of ACES, and it is one of three documents comprising the state-adopted content standards for Minnesota Adult Education.
The TIF was designed to provide ABE programs and instructors with guidance on the effective integration of transitions skills (also known as soft skills or professional skills) into instruction at all levels of ABE.
The TIF includes six categories of skills:
How might you be able to use this resource in your own practice?
The Northstar Digital Literacy website is a great place for adult learners to assess their digital literacy skills and work towards improving their skills.
How are you using Northstar in your region?
One resource to help adult educators define digital literacy skills is through the ISTE Standards. ISTE stands for the International Society for Technology in Education. ISTE also offers evidence-based professional learning, virtual coaching, and year-round academies to support educators in learning and applying effective strategies for the transformational use of technology.
How might you use the ISTE Standards to support your lesson planning?
The Integrating Career Awareness into the ABE & ESOL Classroom is a ready-to-use, flexible curriculum that adult educators can use to incorporate career awareness and planning into their instructional and counseling activities. Section II: Self-Exploration provides many great resources and tools to help adult learners identify non-academic skills and provide evidence of when they use those skills.
Which pages of this guide do you think would be most beneficial to the students you work with currently?
The American School Counselor Association has several different career conversation starter questions that can be used with individuals or groups. Some of the questions might help adult learners talk more in depth about the non-academic skills they have and ways they can use those skills in postsecondary education or the workforce. Here are some questions from the list:
What other questions might you ask adult learners?
As we wrap up our 12 days of skills discussion, on day twelve, we are asking you to share resources that can help adult learners build their non-academic skills.