Maggie Cordero,
Director of Adult Education & Diversity Programs
562-860-2451 ext 2490 or
mcordero@cerritos.edu
Target Population:
Spanish speakers, who more than likely have a job and are seeking to
improve their job skills to obtain a higher skills-higher pay job.
The program includes some immigrant Spanish speakers who are seeking
first time jobs, but these individuals compose a lower percentage
than those improving their job status.
Goals:
To implement institutional change to support low skills adult
learners, and to implement effective strategies to increase skills
and knowledge for potential higher wage higher skills job
opportunities. The Bilingual Program is a measured transition
from Spanish to English that allows the student to learn English at
the same time that they are learning a new occupation skill.
Description:
Through very active marketing and outreach within the Spanish
speaking community, individuals are brought into the program who
desire to upgrade their job skills within one of the six target
occupational areas: welding, machine tools (CNC), plastics,
automotive, pharmacy clerk, and health care (medical assistant).
Those accepted into the program gradually transition from a
Vocational English as a Second Language course to bilingual
introductory credit courses to English only credit courses until
completion of the requirements to receive a certificate or AA degree
in the occupational area chosen. Staff involved in the program
greatly assist students in each step of the way through
understanding what is offered, to enrolling in classes, either in
person or online, through one on one bilingual counseling throughout
the skills learning process, through completion of a certificate or
AA degree program.
Staffing:
The majority of all work is done by the Adult Education staff that
includes the director Maggie, one full time program assistant who
deals specifically with the bilingual programs, 6-7 part time adult
ed assistants, 2 part time counselors from within the college, and
one job developer.
Facilities, equipment, materials:
The program is housed on campus within one section of the Adult
Education services program.
Costs, funding:
As part of the on-going college Adult Education services program,
this program is funded through FTES and other credit and non-credit
funding sources as an Adult Education outreach program within the
area that serves a significant amount of Hispanic immigrants in
search of higher skills-higher pay jobs.
Outreach and marketing:
The program has a dedicated group of bilingual (Spanish language)
Adult Education practitioners who do not hesitate to make contact
with the immigrant community in search of potential students.
Outreach is accomplished through continuous grass roots speaking
appearances at community events, elementary schools, churches, and
other avenues. The local Spanish speaking TV and radio stations run
marketing and informational pieces on the program, as does the local
Spanish speaking Catholic newspaper publication.
Evidence of effectiveness:
The program considers this issue one of the most difficult areas to
nail down, and gain a measure of effectiveness, as students have a
tendency to simply go away when they have gained enough new skills
learning to go out and get a newer, better job. The program does
have a lot of feedback from word of mouth within the community they
serve, and do have a number of students who return to thank them for
their assistance in helping achieve their goals of acquiring new
skills, completing a certificate or degree program, or obtain a new
job.
Suggestions for replication:
The program first and foremost requires the cooperation of both the
non-credit and credit department to work together. We suggest that a
college replicating this program start small, with one occupational
area, as did Cerritos College and slowly built from there. The
biggest snag is getting the initial funding to get the program
started to hire the necessary staff, instructors and purchase
materials prior to the start of the program. It is easier to
replicate in areas where the majority of students they serve speak
one language, as is the case with us, we serve a predominately
Hispanic population.