A fast-food franchise in a small city has a diverse staff with various levels of literacy, between Levels 1 and 3. The employees are also at various age levels. About a third of them are immigrants and refugees from other countries. The management of this franchise has a policy of using staff meetings every two weeks to discuss problems and teach new skills.
For some months, staff members have been learning new skills at every meeting. However, some employees are more skilled than others in several areas of the work, and they find some of the instruction boring or a "waste of time." As well, there have been constant problems with till procedures and cashing out. Scheduling has recently become difficult, as several staff members have religious holidays that they would like to celebrate, but which do not fall within the statutory "Canadian" holidays. Some of the staff members who are learning English also feel uncomfortable at times because they do not understand all of the language at staff meetings and sometimes misinterpret what is said on "the prep line" as they prepare food.
These problems were raised at a staff meeting. The management has decided to ask the staff for some potential solutions to these problems. After much discussion, the staff members requested a form of mentoring to help each other with work problems and improve their job skills. Some of the workers are also interested in becoming managers some day. All staff members want to have staff meetings every two weeks, but would like to develop some mentoring between meetings as well. On the next page is a chart of the theme planning ideas developed during the workers' discussion with management, followed by the theme unit plan.