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Combining
English and Vocational Training Helps Workers With Limited English
Proficiency Get Good Jobs
 Immigrants
arriving in the United States after 1990 accounted for over 50 percent
of the recent growth in the civilian labor force1.
According to the 2000 census figures, approximately 29 million foreign-born
individuals live here, making up more than 11 percent of the population,
and 12.4 percent of the national labor force2.
Immigrant workers also head up 20 percent of low-income families3
. Furthermore, the number of immigrant workers who are union members
has increased since 1996 while the number of native-born union members
has declined in that same period4.
With these statistics, it is no wonder that many unions and their
employer partners want to build bridges to immigrant workers and
their communities to help them get good jobs with family sustaining
wages.
 One
of the challenges facing those who are looking to incorporate recent
immigrants into the workforce is how to address the training and
occupational needs of workers with limited English proficiency (LEP).
All too often, limited English skills combined continued on page
2 with low educational attainment in their native language keep
immigrant workers out of occupational training programs. For example,
most of the programs funded through the nation’s public workforce
development dollars are geared towards workers with at least a 9th
grade level of education. Based on calculations of the Urban Institute,
among low-wage immigrant workers, 28 percent have not completed
the 9th grade. Even those who have higher levels of education (another
28 percent have a Bachelor’s degree or higher 5)
may still have difficulty passing qualifying tests if they are given
in written English.
Unions, employers
and training program professionals want to know the right mix of
language and occupational instruction. Do workers need English before
they can benefit from a training program? How can foreign trained
workers with advanced skills get the certifications they need to
continued on page 3 work in the United States in their field of
expertise? What kind of preparation helps immigrant workers with
limited English proficiency quickly qualify for career ladder training?
To find the
answers to these and other questions, the AFL-CIO Working for America
Institute took a look at promising practices in meeting both the
language and occupational skill needs of immigrant workers in eight
manufacturing, health care, hospitality, and construction training
programs. The results of that investigation have just been released
in Getting
to Work: A Report on How Workers with Limited English Skills Can
Prepare for Good Jobs. Despite the industry differences
and varied objectives of these programs, the Institute discovered
common conceptualization and design steps—and some particularly
encouraging practices—that should be helpful to both start-up
and existing programs. Observation of these programs and their practices
also led the Institute to the following program and policy hypotheses:
- Fluency
and/or literacy in English are not pre-requisites for securing
a family-sustaining job;
- Tailoring
the content of English language instruction and occupational training
to the requirements of specific jobs permits faster, successful
job placement, retention, and advancement.
- Continuing
English instruction is in the long-term interest of limited English
proficient workers along with their employers and communities.
Nevertheless,
even these highly successful programs faced challenges in trying
to meet the training and job placement needs of LEP workers. The
six most common and difficult challenges appeared to be:
- appropriate
use of learner assessment tools and assessment results;
- participant
data tracking and evaluation;
- curriculum
development;
- staff development;
- funding;
and
- issues of
equity and equality on the job.
The report suggests
some solutions to each of these challenges. It also makes recommendations
to a variety of institutions about how they can improve programs
that serve workers with limited English proficiency.
To download
a copy of the report, please see our website at www.workingforamerica.org.
Hard copies are available for $5.00 each by contacting info@workingforamerica.org
or calling Jean Pierce at 202-974-8123.
1
Sum, Fogg, Harrington, et al, Immigrant Workers and the Great
American Job Machine: The Contributions of New Foreign Immigration
to National and Regional Labor Force in the 1990s (National
Business Roundtable, August 2002) pp. 17-18
2
Schmidley, D., Profile of the Foreign-Born Population in the
United States: 2000, Current Population Reports-Special Studies,
U.S. Census Bureau, Series P23-206 (December 2001).
3
Fix, M., Urban Institute. Tabulations of Current Population
Survey (Nov. 2001)
4
Migration Policy Institute, Immigration Facts, May 2004, No. 7.
5
Capps, R., Fix, M., Passel, J.S., Ost, J., Perez-Lopez, D. Immigrant
Families and Workers, Urban Institute. Brief No.4, November
2003.
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