From Adult Learning Spotlight, November 2019

Powerful Learning

Meet The Low Wage Workforce “Fifty-three million Americans – 44% of all workers aged 18-64 – have low-wage jobs, according to “Meet The Low Wage Workforce,” a new report from the Brookings Institute. These workers earn median hourly wages of $10.22 and median annual earnings of $17,950. The common thread in the report’s recommendations are “policies and programs to support low-wage workers advance to higher wage and greater financial stability should address both sides of the labor market: the assets and circumstances of workers and the number and nature of available jobs.”

Other articles in the November, 2019 edition:

• Every Person Counts: How the 2020 U.S. Census Could Impact Adult Education, Blog, Digtial Promise, November 14, 2019 | By Livia Rojas and Sarah Cacicio
• How To Reduce the Income Inequality Gap: The Undereducated American, Center on Education and the Workforce
• Beacon Project Partner: Culinary Academy of Las Vegas: the Culinary Academy of Las Vegas (CALV), provides training and up-skilling solutions for hospitality workers in the southern Nevada region. By partnering with local companies, CALV helps place students in jobs upon graduation.

   

  

No Matter What Obstacle is Thrown My Way

By National College Transition Network, World Education

No Matter What Obstacle is Thrown My Way is the report from the Single Mothers’ Career Readiness and Success Project, funded by ECMC Foundation. The report documents program models and service strategies, and, to a lesser extent, institutional and public policies, implemented specifically in community college settings to support single mothers and increase their rates of persistence and completion, leading to greater career and economic opportunities and success for themselves and their families.

With this investigation, we hope to contribute to the field’s understanding of the landscape and illuminate the strengths and gaps in the support systems available to single mother students, with a focus on community colleges. Our ultimate goal is to share the insights and best practices we have gleaned with educators, funders and investors, and policymakers so that, together, we can increase the opportunities and supports available to single mother students.

READ THE REPORT

Executive Summary: No Matter What Obstacle is Thrown My Way

Full Report: No Matter What Obstacle is Thrown My Way

 

Workplace Readiness: Can It Lead to Better Employment and Earnings for Low-Income Adults?

This brief,by Jacob Hartog, Sarah Wissel, Annalisa Mastri, and Kelley Borradaile discusses 19 interventions identified by the Employment Strategies for Low-Income
Adults Evidence Review (ESER) that featured workreadiness services as their primary employment or
training strategy.2 This brief describes work-readiness
interventions and their impact on employment and
earnings. It also profiles six promising interventions
and their impacts in more detail.

To read this 2016 brief, click on this link:  https://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/opre/eser_ib_workreadiness_111116_b508.pdf

The Employment Strategies for Low-Income Adults Evidence Review (ESER) is a systematic review of the literature on the impacts of employment and training programs and policies for low-income people. Sponsored by the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE) in the Administration for Children and Families, ESER provides practitioners, policymakers, researchers, and the public with a transparent, systematic assessment of the quality of research evidence supporting approaches to improve the employment-related outcomes of low-income adults.

“More Unprepared Than We Thought: Adult educational attainment,” an SREB Fact Sheet

“Low-skilled workers are being left behind as technology shifts the workforce toward the middle-skills level. Educators and policymakers will need to reach these adults with education and training to fill plentiful, well-paying middle-skill jobs in their states. This [2018] fact sheet summarizes trends and state policy concerns.” – SREB (Southern Regional Education Board), November 2018

 

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2018 Funding for WIOA programs

FY 2018 omnibus released, increases funding for key workforce, education programs [in the U.S.], March  22,  2018,  by Kermit Kaqleba, Katie Spiker, and Katie Brown, National Skills Coalition.

Congressional leaders last night released final text for an omnibus spending package (click on this link to appropriations.house.gov) that is expected to finalize Fiscal Year (FY) 2018 appropriations for most federal programs. The $1.3 trillion omnibus reflects the increased spending levels for both defense and non-defense programs agreed to as part of recent legislation lifting the budget “caps” for federal discretionary spending, and includes some critical boosts in funding for key education and workforce development programs…

Importantly, the omnibus rejects many of the proposed cuts to workforce and education programs that were included in President Trump’s FY 2018 budget request, and sends a clear signal about the bipartisan support for investments in skills as the economy grows.

  Click here to read the rest of the article.

Table from Educate and Elevate.

Department of Labor: Watch and Learn Videos

NEW: The Department of Labor’s plain-language video series offers Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) guidance in language you don’t need a law degree to understand. While the videos target employers, they can inform adult students about labor standards in the workplace.

Click here to enter the DOL site.

To view the FLSA videos click on FLSA Videos. This is the URL to the link: https://www.dol.gov/whd/flsa/videos.htm

 

Degree and Nondegree Credentials Held by Labor Force Participants

Examining the percentage of adults who have a postsecondary degree misses other types of postsecondary credentials that could be useful in the labor market, such as postsecondary certificates, occupational licenses and occupational certifications.

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) released a new Data Point report today (March 27) entitled Degree and Nondegree Credentials Held by Labor Force Participants. This report examines the rates at which working adults have attained either a postsecondary degree or a postsecondary nondegree credential, including postsecondary certificates, occupational licenses, and occupational certifications. The report uses data from the Adult Training and Education survey, conducted as part of the 2016 National Household Education Survey (NHES) program.

Among the findings:

• Although only 45 percent of working adults have a postsecondary degree, when nondegree credentials are factored in, 58 percent of working adults have some type of postsecondary work credential.
• Among working adults who do not have a postsecondary degree, the most common nondegree credential is an occupational license.

To view the full report, please visit this link to the Data Point handout entitled Degree and Nondegree Credentials Held by Labor Force Participants or cut and paste this URL into an address bar:  http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2018057.