EFF sees these skills as key for any adult who wishes to participate effectively as a worker, family member, or community member/citizen. In addition to naming the skills, EFF researchers have more precisely defined each one, breaking them into components to make it clearer to practitioners and learners what sub-skills are needed to, for example, “read with understanding.” By so doing, EFF makes it easier for practitioners to know what to teach, for learners to know what they need to learn, and for those who evaluate programs to know what learners are achieving.

Unlike previous efforts to define “what adults need to know,” EFF didn’t stop with a tidy list. EFF has — again, drawing on research — also mapped out principles of adult basic education to guide practitioners in their curriculum design. EFF holds that instruction needs to be “purposeful” to learners (focused on goals meaningful to them), “transparent” (i.e. designed so that learners understand why they are learning particular things), “contextualized” (built around real-world applications of skills), and “constructivist” (helping learners to build on what they already know). Instruction should also have ongoing assessment built into learning activities, to help learners and practitioners to reflect on what is being achieved and how to keep activities on track, while also providing evidence to incorporate into program evaluations.

Built-in Training and Assessment Systems

EFF staff have also taken on the mammoth task of developing a training system to help interested adult educators learn how to adapt EFF to their particular situations and, in turn, train others to do so, as well. EFF staff are also working with state and federal policy makers to help them understand what they need to do to provide professional development and reporting systems which support the EFF framework.

EFF staff are also now (a) developing an assessment system tied in with the National Reporting System for adult education programs, (b) creating a work-readiness credential which learners can earn if they demonstrate proficiency via the new assessment system, and (c) piloting EFF in specific industries, to provide tools for those wishing to incorporate EFF into work-related education programs.

This ambitious systems-reform initiative is making real changes in U.S. adult education programs. For those who focus on helping learners develop the basic skills they need for work, EFF provides many useful tools and a nation-wide network of like-minded professionals (linked via e-mail and periodic institutes). This is especially true for those who support the systematic approach to workplace education outlined in Mary Ellen Belfiore’s report. (See www.nifl.gov/nifl/eff.html for more information.)

An Organizational Needs Assessment Success Story for Union Workers

In early 2001, a team of workplace educators adapted the workplace needs assessment methodology pioneered in Canada (Folinsbee and Jurmo, 1994) to document the educational needs of subway and bus workers in New York City. The newly-elected leadership of Transport Workers Union (TWU) Local 100 was interested in setting up education and training programs to help its members deal with the new technologies being introduced into virtually every job held by the local’s 36,000 members. TWU brought in two staff from the Consortium for Worker Education (CWE), a city-wide network of union- and community-based basic skills, job training, and job-placement programs to help TWU develop an education strategy.