Bilingual Program portion of Breaking Through Initiative - Cerritos

 

Program Components:

Outreach/recruitment/marketing

Academic/remedial support

Collaborative funding

 

Maggie Cordero,

Director of Adult Education & Diversity Programs

Tel: 562-860-2451 ext 2490

Email: 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,

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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.

Limited English Proficient Students

Los Angeles/Orange (7/8)

Engineering/industrial technology

Health

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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