AleWorkplaceResearch

From LiteracyTentWiki

1. Workplace Education: Twenty State Perspectives September,2007. Available from the Publications page of the National Commission on Adult Literacy website: http://www.nationalcommissiononadultliteracy.org

2. Evaluation Report on Massachusetts Workplace Education project at Imperial Distributors, October 28, 2005
http://www.creativeworkplacelearning.com [ Select link to "Value of Workplace Education"

3. Conference Board. (1999). Turning skills into profit: Economic benefits of workplace education programs (Research Report No. 1247-99-RR). New York, NY: Bloom, M. R. & Lafleur, B http://www.conferenceboard.ca/education/pdf/Skills_Profits.pdf

According to Barbara Forsberg, in a post to the National Institutute for Literacy Workplace Discussion list on March 7, 2006,
"The top five benefits to organizations that the 55 employers reported, and the percentages reporting those benefits, were:

1) Morale/self-esteem – 87%

2) Quality of work – 82%

3) Improved problem-solving capacity – 82%

4) Team performance – 82%

5) Capacity to cope with change – 75%

The top five skills that the 55 employers thought employees had gained, and the percentages reporting those gains, were:

1) Willingness and ability to learn for life – 85%

2) Improved ability to learn and apply information – 84%

3) Improved ability to use documents – 84%

4) Positive attitude toward change – 84%

5) Ability to build and work in teams – 80% "

4. Paris, K. A. (1992). Evaluation of the third year of implementation of the Wisconsin Workplace Partnership Training Program (Report No. CE064497). Madison, WI: Center on Education and Work. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 361535) http://tinyurl.com/r5yfo

"All respondents <including employers> agreed that the WPT had improved the workers’ basic academic skills. The workers agreed strongly that the WPT had also improved their job skills, self-image, and work quality." (Barbara Forsberg, in a post to the National Institutute for Literacy Workplace Discussion list on March 7, 2006)

5. Thomas/Lane & Associates in association with James Bowman Association (2000, March 1). An evaluation of California's community college based economic development programs ( ED>Net). Retrieved November 22, 2005, from http://www.cccewd.net/resource.cfm?c=11

"The calculated growth rates for the 224 companies who did and did not receive ED>Net services were:

• Total employment (number of jobs): 7.4% vs. 3.2%
• Wages per worker: 7.3% vs. 4.6%
• Gross profits: no significant difference

The economic performance of state funds invested in ED>Net programs was found to be as follows:

• Benefit/cost ratio: 9.6%
• Fiscal return on investment (ROI): minimum of 19%, maximum of 35%

The report points out that the ED>Net services, while not necessarily the cause of the higher growth rates, can definitely be said to be statistically associated with them. It may be, for example, that the companies who sought out ED>Net services were growing already and needed help with training, or that the companies who sought out ED>Net services were pursuing other strategies that made them more successful." (Barbara Forsberg, in a post to the National Institutute for Literacy Workplace Discussion list on March 7, 2006)

6. Levenson, Alec. "Why Do Companies Provide Workplace Education Programs?" in Review of Adult Learning and Literacy, Volume IV: Chapter 3 (2004) http://www.ncsall.net/fileadmin/resources/ann_rev/rall_v4_ch3.pdf

7. Chang Barker, Kathryn "Elearning and Adult Literacy: Exploring Return on Investment" http://www.futured.com/pdf/eLearning%20and%20Literacy%20ROI%20Guide%20Feb%2004.pdf

8. Literacy @ Work, Skills Today, Jobs Tomorrow Los Angeles report on workforce literacy. http://www.unitedwayla.org/pages/rpts_resource/lwf_presskitflyer.pdf

9. Workplace Education: Voices from the Field. Proceedings, National Workplace Literacy Program Project Directors Conference (Washington, D.C., September 1991). http://eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/13/03/13.pdf

10. Testing and Accountability in Adult Literacy Education: Focus on Workplace Literacy Resources for Program Design, Assessment, Testing, & Evaluation The author, Tom Sticht, says the report "provides knowledge resources for designing, delivering and evaluating workplace literacy programs. Chapter 2 of the report is based on a report I prepared for the U.S. Dept. of Education in 1991 telling how to evaluate national workplace literacy programs. The chapter includes comments on (1) by what criteria should a company judge the value of its program, (2) how should the government evaluate the programs it funds, (3) relationship of program design and development to evaluation, (4) the need for data on program effectiveness,(5) are current government requirements for evaluation realistic and useful for companies receiving funds, (6) on what basis should companies decide whether to fund workplace literacy programs, and (7) developing an attitude for inquiry." http://www.nald.ca/library/research/sticht/testing/testing.pdf

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