GETTING STARTED

WORKPLACE BASIC SKILLS

WORKPLACE EDUCATION PROGRAM

FREE TOOLS

ADVICE FOR ACTION

MAP OF USA

ABOUT LINKS

RECENT UPDATES

FAQs

SITE MAP

Involving Employees

You can encourage your employees' participation and commitment to learning by involving them in WEP development and delivery. 

Show your employees that you value their input into the design and development of your WEP and you build in their commitment to its success.

Also, by involving the participants of the WEP in the development stages, you will likely increase the usefulness of the training program to their jobs.   Employees may have insights into their own personal training needs that management may not be aware of.

Penn State University's Institute for the Study of Adult Literacy conducts research on Adult Learning, and has published reports on Retaining Reluctant Learners in Adult Literacy Programs and on Understanding and Overcoming Resistance to Adult Literacy Education.
   URL: http://www.ed.psu.edu/isal/nfrm_pubs.html

The Employability Competency System by CASAS is a structure for evaluating individual's strengths and weaknesses as they relate to employability competencies.  The system focuses on individual demonstration of employment competency mastery, rather than spending a fixed amount of time in a program.
    URL: http://www.casas.org/05Employability/05EmployabilityOverview.cfm

The American Productivity and Quality Centre (APQC)'s trained experts support your internal efforts and work with your existing teams to employ APQC's proven tools and techniques. They also educate existing process and skills "champions" in your organization on using and applying winning methodologies.
    URL: http://www.apqc.org/solutions/resources.cfm

Workplace mentoring requires a partnership commitment that involves time, energy, and resources of qualified mentors, school personnel, and learners themselves. Workplace mentoring requires planning, training, monitoring, and assessment to ensure that the individuals being mentored will achieve successful outcomes.
     URL: http://www.ericacve.org/docgen.asp?tbl=tia&ID=152

This report explores the term, informal learning, reviews the results of research conducted by the Education Development Center (EDC) Inc., and describes the planning strategies and implications for practice offered by EDC and others.
     URL: http://www.ericacve.org/docgen.asp?tbl=pab&ID=100

The Career Planning and Adult Development Network keeps adults in touch with career counselors, career coaches, job search trainers and human resource professionals through its publications, workshops and conferences.
     URL: http://www.careernetwork.org/

Stanford's International and Cross-Cultural Education Program offers teaching materials on cultural differences, cultural awareness, ethnic studies, international studies, and multicultural education. Interdisciplinary lessons and tools include cooperative group activities.
     URL: http://spice.stanford.edu/

An article on an unusual corporate philosophy, social leveling, shows how Yarde Metals gets rid of the tension between labor and management, and has everyone working together toward one purpose.
     URL: http://www.workforce.com/section/11/article/23/38/72.html

Companies that build up internal training resources can reduce their dependency on outside consultants and this lower training costs. This article discusses combining the training and design expertise of an outside organization with internal experts prepped to teach the material.
     URL: http://www.workforce.com/archive/feature/23/31/26/index.php

Teaching employees who are subject-matter experts to be trainers can be a low-cost way to teach the rest of the organization. This article explores the issues of developing employees into trainers, including training needs and assessment, design, delivery, and evaluation.
    URL: http://www.workforce.com/archive/article/23/24/25.php

Sometimes managers resist training for their departments. This article illustrates how to work with reluctant managers and show them the benefits of offering tailored training programs to their staff.
     URL: http://www.workforce.com/archive/article/22/13/89.php

HR can create skills and competency management systems, and can also encourage employees to use them. Educate employees about the benefits of improved skills to show their importance for self-appraisal, career development, and other processes. 
     URL: http://www.workforce.com/archive/feature/22/29/92/223613.php

Collective bargaining agreements have spawned effective training programs. By working together, unions and management can create effective learning environments where adults can take their next steps toward literacy and career development.
     URL: http://www.workforce.com/archive/feature/22/17/40/223650.php

This recent report on joint labor-management educational programs uses best practice examples to show the key design elements as well as the benefits and impacts for organizations, unions and individual workers.
     Success by Design      (pdf, 258 KB)

This paper discusses the union role in ensuring that American workers have the skills they need in a dynamic workplace.
     URL: http://www.nald.ca/fulltext/report3/rep23-27/rep24-01.htm

This report on the importance of learners' perspectives on the outcomes of adult basic education stresses the importance of access to and participation in training. It also provides a how–to guide for measuring performance and outcomes. (69 KB)
     URL: http://www.gse.harvard.edu/%7Encsall/research/op_bingman.pdf

A successful joint labor-management training program is rooted in cooperation. This article shares five qualities that illustrate a good labor-management partnership for employee training.
     URL: http://www.workforce.com/archive/feature/22/17/40/223926.php

This article discusses seven essential questions for employers to ask before beginning an employee training program. Answering the questions of who really needs training, what are the costs and expected outcomes beforehand will help to ensure effective and relevant training.
     URL: http://www.workforce.com/archive/feature/22/17/10/223931.php

Employees can learn informally through a learning process called taxonomies - a matrix that shows how employees learn. This chart condenses the four taxonomies of informal learning by content.
    URL: http://www.workforce.com/archive/feature/22/16/56/223792.php

A team-based approach to mentoring can help reduce employee turnover. Potential leaders are targeted by management and coached through the development of critical leadership and technical skills. Their progress is then carefully followed by senior management and HR.
     URL: http://www.workforce.com/archive/feature/22/16/68/index.php

Creating a 'culture of work' by incorporating soft skills into training can yield great returns in the workplace. This article how examines how four groups have incorporated soft skills training - such as courtesy and team work - into hard skills training curricula.
http://www.astd.org/virtual_community/research/What_Works/action/top_10.html

This 12-question quiz by Gallup can start employers off on identifying and measuring levels of employee engagement with their organization. Survey research shows a strong correlation between high scores and superior job performance.
    URL: http://www.workforce.com/section/09/article/23/53/40.html

Creating a training program that doesn’t alienate employees, and actually works as well, is no easy task. These training tips, including asking employees about their work-related challenges, can help employers create training programs that employees really like.  
     URL: http://www.workforce.com/archive/feature/23/35/28/233530.php

This article identifies some of the most common and critical patterns to know prior to developing adult learning opportunities. Employers and adult educators can learn about what it takes to teach adults effectively, and the implications for traditional and online learning.
     URL: http://adulted.about.com/cs/learningtheory/a/lrng_patterns.htm

The Motivation Tool Chest shares ideas on developing productive skills through self-discovery. Discovering and developing employees' natural talent is a prime source of motivation.
     URL: http://www.motivation-tools.com/

Procevo sells survey software that facilitates staff satisfaction surveys. The results will enable employers to improve staff motivation among other benefits, including a clearer view of the actions needed for success.
     URL: http://www.procevo.com/

WE LEARN promotes women's literacy as a tool for personal growth and social change through networking, education, action, and resource development.
     URL: http://www.litwomen.org/welearn.html

The Bernard Kleiman JobLink Learning Center in East Chicago, Indiana serves unionized steel mill workers. The Center's research findings explore how to increase participation through improved knowledge of workers' goals and motivations for taking part in training.
     URL: http://www.ncsall.net/?id=217

This article presents Seven Characteristics of Highly Effective Adult Learning Programs. These are the results of a study that investigated factors in adult learning environments that best facilitate adult growth and development.
     URL: http://www.newhorizons.org/lifelong/workplace/billington.htm

A new report by the Migration Policy Institute identifies English acquisition as a serious challenge for both legal and illegal immigrants. Businesses are encouraged to invest more on English instruction as a way of improving workforce capacity.            http://www.migrationpolicy.org/pubs/NCIIP_English_Instruction073107.pdf

Incentives to train: Ensuring employer engagement is a UK research report (40 pages) looks at findings from interviews and a roundtable discussion. Participants evaluated existing provision to incentivise training for employers, identifying the major areas of concern and proposing recommendations for change.
    URL: http://www.nationalskillsforum.org.uk/Incentives_to%20Train%20(2).pdf

Profiting from Experience is a new research report that explores how governments and employers in the U.S. and other countries are responding to aging workforce issues.
     URL: http://www.aarp.org/research/work/issues/intl_older_worker.html

WelfareAtWork shares ideas and information on how to encourage employees to take part in training and development opportunities.
     URL: http://www.welfareatwork.co.uk/accessing-training-and-development-at-work.html

Dyslexia at Work: Realising Your Employees' Potential is an article that answers key questions on dyslexia and provides advice to employers on the best ways to create a dyslexia-friendly workplace and to ensure you are meeting key disability legislation.
     URL: http://www.hrzone.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=184367

Strategies for Success in Career Development is a guide to help learners explore career choices and make informed decisions about training. The guide is designed for adult learners at different education and skill levels.
     URL: http://www.womenemployed.org/index.php?id=143

Career Pathways Toolkit is a new resource for state and local leaders working to expand education, training and learning opportunities for America's current and emerging workforce.
     URL: http://www.communitycollegecentral.org/careerpathways/index.html

Preparing Low-Skilled Workers for the Jobs of Tomorrow explores how to ensure that existing workers have the education and skills necessary to fill middle-skill, technical and support STEM positions. Also identified are state policies that can better prepare today's existing low-skilled workers for middle-skill positions. 
   URL: http://www.workingpoorfamilies.org/pdfs/WPFP_policy_brief_fall08.pdf

Partnerships, Pathways and Proportional Investment is a report from the Workforce Alliance that argues for at least two years of post-secondary training for all U.S. workers. Support and access for basic skills development is also discussed.
    URL: http://www.workforcealliance.org/atf/cf/%7B93353952-1df1-473a-b105-7713f4529ebb%7D/SKILLSSTRATEGY_FINAL.PDF

Expanding Horizons: Pacesetters in Adult Education at Work is a report that looks at initiatives to expand adult education for work and career pathway systems. Among the best are the 20 programmes that took part in the April 2009 Readiness Roundtable. These programmes are located in 15 states and vary greatly in size and range of services.
     URL: http://www.caalusa.org/Expanding.pdf 

For problems or questions regarding this web site contact campbell@conferenceboard.ca.
Last updated: Mar. 5, 2010.