TWC awards HCC grant to expand career pathways for Adult Education programs
Apr 8, 2016
Houston Community College (HCC) has been selected to act as lead institution and fiscal agent for a consortium of community colleges receiving a grant from the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) to expand the state’s Accelerate TEXAS initiative. Other members of the consortium include, Alamo Colleges, Amarillo College, South Texas College, and Tarrant County College District. The $500,000 grant will support mentoring activities by the consortium designed to expand career pathway programs at ten additional community colleges and Adult Education providers throughout Texas.
As mentors, the consortium members will assist other community colleges and Adult Education providers in establishing career pathway programs, similar to the successful models that they and HCC have operated over the past several years. These accelerated models have been proven successful because they concurrently enroll learners in contextualized basic education courses, such as reading and math, along with skills training courses such as welding. Contextualized content is more relevant and meaningful to students and results in quicker learning. Using this method, students are often able to complete training programs in one semester or less which gets them into a new career more quickly and at less cost.
The project will implement a mentoring model to support the development, expansion and success of Adult Education and Literacy (AEL) programs to provide Integrated Education and Training (IET) models to meet students’ workforce readiness needs. The consortium will support the implementation of career pathways aligned with the needs of local industries and employers at no less than ten community colleges and Adult Education providers exhibiting a high potential for expansion of the Accelerate Texas Initiative.
“These efficient career pathway models are able to get people the soft skills, literacy and technical skills needed to gain a place in the local workforce, strengthening the future of Texas communities,” said TWC Chairman Andres Alcantar. “Expanding the opportunity for communities to obtain or update job skills benefits present and future job seekers with employment opportunities, remaining competitive in the job market.”
When programs integrate training and Adult Education for completion within a single semester, HCC has found that it is common for students to achieve credentialing rates in the eighty to ninety percent range. Career skills, such as interpersonal, cognitive and applied workforce knowledge, deliver workforce-readiness qualities to adult students in a shorter timeframe and with considerable lower student cost. Additionally, the career pathway program expansion connects with the four goals of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board’s 60x30TX initiative.
“Accelerate Texas is the best thing that has ever happened to Adult Education. If you want underprepared students to complete postsecondary credentials and enter employment; integrated education and training is the best way to do it,” according to HCC Director of Adult Education Dr. David Joost. “Of all the education and training initiatives that have come and gone over the years, Accelerate Texas is different, it works and it’s here to stay.”
This AEL initiative expands opportunities supporting workforce training efforts and aligning occupational skills with today’s high demand job market. It is one of the many steps being taken to reinforce the Accelerate TEXAS, 60x30TX and Tri-Agency Workforce initiatives to prepare adult students with workforce-readiness skills.
The five consortium members were among the first Accelerate TEXAS grant recipients funded by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to have successful records for mentoring community colleges in the adoption of Accelerate TEXAS strategies. Individuals interested in the TWC AEL program can visit twc.state.tx.us/partners/adult-education-literacy.