The Workforce Creation and Adult Education Transition Council is tasked with developing a plan for the seamless transfer of adult education and literacy programs and correctional education programs from the Maryland State Department of Education to the Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation. There are many stakeholders with opinions, issues and concerns about how this transfer should take place, how these critical programs should operate and what their goals should be.
About 100 of those stakeholders attended the Council's first meeting on July 29, 2008, and participated in an exercise that asked the question:
What should the workforce and adult education environment in Maryland look like in 2013?
While the participants, including educators, administrators, employers, labor leaders, advocates and government officials, came up with 222 unique thoughts in response to the question posed, their different perspectives actually led them to many of the same themes. Three dominant themes emerged:
- Linking adult education to workforce opportunities (including program transitions and pathways), represented 30 % of responses;
- Expanding service options and making programs more flexible, and enhancing access (including technology), represented 19 % of responses;
- Increasing the professional development for adult education professionals, represented 16 % of responses.
These areas represent substantial opportunities for improving adult and correctional education programs and the methods by which they are delivered as the transfer takes place in 2009. They also represent common themes seen nationwide and states work to adapt adult education and workforce creation programs to an ever-changing economy.
The themes expressed during this exercise, and the issues associated with them, echoed themes articulated in two reports, one statewide and one national, examining the state of adult education.
Stepping Up to the Future, the 2005 report of the Maryland Superintendent's Panel on Excellence in Adult Education, and
Reach Higher America from the National Commissioner on Adult Literacy, 2008, both made recommendations for improving adult learning.
- Linking adult education to workforce opportunities:
- Stepping Up to the Future found that investing in adult education is an economic imperative, and noted that it is critical to ensure that the State's workforce has the skills to compete.
- Reach Higher America recommended federal legislation to overhaul adult education and workforce training and integrate services.
- Access and Service Options
- Stepping Up to the Future found that nearly one million Marylanders need adult education services, and endorsed continuation of a "delivery system that uses a variety of organization types to deliver services."
- Reach Higher emphasized that a new federal adult learning system to focus on services that meet the needs of various populations, including incumbent workers, immigrants needing English skills, parents with low basic skills, incarcerated adults and both high school dropouts and high school graduates not prepared for college.
- Professional Development
- Stepping Up to the Future found that Maryland needs to "create more opportunities to attract, develop and retain full time, well qualified faculty" for adult learning.
- Reach Higher America found that few states require adult education teachers to show a mastery of specialized knowledge and skills needed to teach adults, and suggested establishing certification systems.
As the Workforce Creation and Adult Education Transition Council continues with its work, these themes should guide its focus and the focus of the work groups. The themes represent not only concerns about the current and future systems of workforce creation and adult learning, but also opportunities to build upon successes, identify best practices and create a new, aligned system that best serves adult learners.
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