Online Course: Introduction to Workforce Preparation Activities and Employability Skills

The grouped framework is a great idea and good way to chunk areas for easier recall for students. 

Conceptual frameworks add a high level of potential to positive outcomes because of the uniformity instructors have to reflect and base their teaching strategies. I felt this course offered much in this area and plan to use it as a springboard as I align my teaching to the students to be sure I get across the most important if I cannot get all information and motivational creativity at the highest level.

I've taught adults in various positions prior to this training. This training gave me insight on the "whys" of what I had been taught to do for years. It is great to achieve a better understanding of what I enjoy doing.

I teach beginning ESOL students, and a gap that I often see in training is how to introduce certain skills and competencies to students who are not even literate in their own language.  It is assumed that students can read, write, and speak with some degree of confidence and competence, which unfortunately is not always true.  It is important, though, to intertwine college and career readiness consistently throughout any ESOL class for adults.

I benefited from this class. The WIOA requirements and ways to implement are clearer now.  

This may not be the best place to share this . . . but I can't figure out what else I need to do to receive my course completion certificate.  Your assistance is appreciated.  

I enjoyed learning more about the specifics of WIOA. I've been teaching workforce prep activities in my classes for years but it was nice to have a "why" for the "what" that I've been doing. In addition, I was pleased to realize that I've been incorporating more workplace prep activities than I realized, just inadvertently!

This was an excellent course. I learned a lot. However, this course was a little difficult to navigate.

I found the class lesson examples lively, imaginative and thought provoking. I can see implementing them in my classroom. 

My students are on the first rung of the ladder to higher academia and employment. Along with workplace soft skills, I introduce specific vocabulary required in their chosen field as well as giving them specific dialogues to develop their use of English and build a group comradery, developing teamwork within the class.

I believe it is very important, particularly for our adult students, that they understand that many of the workforce skills they are acquiring in the classroom is transferrable to several parts of their daily lives both inside and outside of the workplace.  Time management skills, critical thinking skills, digital literacy skills etc are crucial to their overall success and make them highly employable regardless of their career choice.  

These are great resources that will help teachers guide students about workforce and employability.

I have been teaching Career and Technical Education (CTE) classes in an adult education program for a number of years.  Although I have the hands-on piece of employability, I need to familiarize myself more thoroughly with the other aspects of the workforce as delineated in this course.  These skills are very necessary for my students, and I hope to learn more about this topics.

Very extensive resource that will help adult students explore workforce and employability

This really helped me in my understanding of WIOA. It was broken down well but the navigation system should be improved.

I like how the system not only educates students about many basic skills needed for the workplace but also teaches students that they have to learn "to own" their learning and use critical thinking for success.

The information shared in this course was very informative but as one other participant stated, it was difficult navigating through it. 

This course was very interesting and gave me much more information about WIOA. I have recently done some teaching outside of the ESL classroom, at local businesses in my area, and I will definitely incorporate many of the ideas I learned about in this course for that type of work. I can see that the ideas would also be helpful in my regular ELS classes. However, I have been teaching lower levels and some ideas seem a little complex for some of those students.

Very interesting course. Very informative. I look forward to using information, plans, and ideas from toolkits and websites provided. Thank you!

I was unaware of a lot of these resources, so thank you for this information. I think it will be very helpful in the future.

I'm new to teaching job skills, so WIOC is new to me, but I saw a lot of useful things. Thank you.

I have not implemented student practice in managing personnel when they participate in team projects, delegate tasks, and reflect on their own participation and accountability to the group. Not sure at what level this could be implemented in my ESL classroom.

I have implemented student practice of managing money by creating a household budget. This activity seems to be a common household task.

At the institution I taught at, we all became very familiar with the CCR standards and rewrote our curriculum across the entire school to integrate the standards and to develop contextualized lesson plans. The school had a big student body of ESL learners and so we integrated resources to focus on their needs. WIOA was of course a resource we would use for all students. We evaluated what we were doing by the feedback from previous students and of course from the program advisory boards.                                             

Maybe this course isn't designed to talk about soft skills, but I think they are important. 

The environment I currently work in it is difficult for students the importance of preparation.  I strongly believe these skills need to be part of programing to help reduce recidivism.  When a student enters our facility I highly recommend education and training classes of all kinds to broaden their employability.  Many do not have any skills at all and learning how to write a resume, know what is expected for a specific job they are interested in has been a goal of ours.  Depending on their O-net profiles we educate them in fields that will be of interest to increase their success rate.

Previously, I noticed a lot of my students would rely on each other for help when working on certain classroom activities. Adding a critical thinking step before group work has helped some students become more self sufficient as well as increasing their self confidence in a group setting. They realize they are able to provide a valuable perspective or information to the group. 

This course has given me more tools to help more students from diverse backgrounds begin their careers. I am excited to use these activities to further my students education. 

Integrity is key.

I agree with several others in that time management is key.  Many students struggle to stay on top of their responsibilities as a result of irresponsible management of time and resources.  They are capable of doing their work but fail to think ahead, plan, and adapt when things don't always go according to plan.  I think time management can also go hand-in-hand with problem solving skills as dealing with their schedules and getting their work and tasks done in a timely manner requires prioritization and "thinking outside of the box" at times.  Learning these skills can translate to so many other areas of their lives in which they be successful.

There is a lot of good information included in this course. I think goal setting may be one skill that has not been explicitly mentioned (although I think it's implied by other skills included in the graphic organizer) in the workplace preparation activities discussed so far, but may be included in one of the larger categories of skills, like self-management or utilizing resources. Goal setting is a vital skill in assessment of both personal and work-related activities and plays an important role in time management, taking initiative, and taking responsibility for personal growth.

This is my first year as an ABE instructor and I have spent a lot of time researching, collecting, and developing instructional materials. Although I was familiar with some of the resources covered in this training beforehand, it was really great to get a chance to rediscover some of them and learn about new ones as well. I have used some of the TIF materials in my own class with success and will look to other resources to see what I can adapt for my own class needs.

Adult English Language Learners are individuals who have different levels of literacy. Most of my students have a very low level of education and are struggling financialy. They are also facing substancial cultural barriers, difficulting their adaptation to this new environment.

I am not an instructor in our adult education program. I work on the course enrichment catalog, test students and prepare spaces for testing and classes. A lot of this is new to me. I was a classroom teacher, so it enhances what I already knew. I've taken several of the LINCS classes, and have found them helpful for my job, but also on a more personal level because I have a nephew who because of an injury is struggling to find his way through the career network. I will be talking to my director to find out if we can offer these resources to him so that he can become successful in his job / career search. 

There was so much in this course - I found it a little overwhelming. I'm not an instructor or program director. I learned a great deal, but as I said, a little overwhelmed

I have a better understanding of WIOA and how to incorporate work readiness skills into the classroom.

This is my initial venture into these courses, marking my debut in this learning environment. I am genuinely impressed by the abundance and diversity of resources at my disposal. The content offered in the 'Introduction to Workforce Preparation and Employability Skills Course' is both comprehensive and enlightening.

These resources will undoubtedly aid me in refining my teaching methods and approaches. More importantly, they will empower me to guide my students more effectively in their journey to develop vital soft skills. These skills, ranging from communication to problem-solving, are crucial for their employability and competitiveness.

Furthermore, this course provides me with the necessary tools to prepare my students for their future endeavors, whether they choose to pursue higher education or enter directly into their respective careers. The knowledge gained here will equip my students with a competitive edge, allowing them to stand out in today's fast-paced and ever-evolving job market."

This is my initial venture into these courses, marking my debut in this learning environment. I am genuinely impressed by the abundance and diversity of resources at my disposal. The content offered in the 'Introduction to Workforce Preparation and Employability Skills Course' is both comprehensive and enlightening.

These resources will undoubtedly aid me in refining my teaching methods and approaches. More importantly, they will empower me to guide my students more effectively in their journey to develop vital soft skills. These skills, ranging from communication to problem-solving, are crucial for their employability and competitiveness.

Furthermore, this course provides me with the necessary tools to prepare my students for their future endeavors, whether they choose to pursue higher education or enter directly into their respective careers. The knowledge gained here will equip my students with a competitive edge, allowing them to stand out in today's fast-paced and ever-evolving job market.

Being an Adult Educator and be able to help people is achieving their professional goals is great. However, nowadays, we need to be more competent in many areas. It is very interesting but at the same time challenging for our program to see that new or younger generations lack of soft skills. Employers are looking for dependable people, problem solvers, good communicators, critical thinkers. In  our program Santa Cruz County Continuing Education (SCCCE) in Nogales Az, we are trying to contextualize our lessons  to our ELL's adding rigor, promoting critical thinking activities to our classes and teach this type of content, hard/soft skills.

This course was great, I love the breakdown of the information, and the examples used to show the integrations of the competencies and skills into our lessons.

I have heard about WIOA for a while ,but I have never fully understand the scope of it contents. It is a really good resource to be used in our adult education setting.

This was very helpful to provide context about workforce skills.  I did like the idea of creating a personal flow chart as many of my students struggle with self- and time-management.

After viewing this unit i was able to ascertain skills that I had not used in my classes before.  They provide useful information in helping students to prepare for work.  the skills that are required are easy to obtain, if students are ready to try.

It is wonderfull for me know this important information that at a given moment will help us, because having good knowledge prepares us to help improve students in class and also with other needs outside of class.

This course connected the dots for me. Thanks!

I teach in a rural area where most industry is in manufacturing or farming.  Also, there is a growing rate of crimes committed by male juveniles within our community.  These students under age 18 who are currently on house arrest are court-ordered to enroll in our program; therefore, lack of  motivation impacts attendance.  As mentioned in the summary of this discussion board, I already integrate some of the skills and competencies addressed in this course, but I use interest inventories and personality surveys to initially build rapport with my learners. Aside from that, I believe the course emphasized the goals of increasing employment outcomes, postsecondary education and training transition and completion, gaining skill, and high school equivalency completion.

To demonstrate an understanding of the College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards select activities from published materials that align with these standards. Additionally, develop supplementary activities that also address these standards.

I agree that many learners need basic work ethics especially in time management. Providing a calendar or guiding them to how to access on phone as well.

A visual reminder is needed for many.

Many students depending on bus system come either late or early.