Posted on 02/14/2006 12:38:05 PM PST by bourbon
U.S. Department of Labor Awards $4.9 Million in Grants To Improve English Language Skills in the Workplace
Grants Will Train Workers in California, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York and Texas
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Labor today announced five grants totaling more than $4.9 million to improve English language skills in the workplace. The grants will train approximately 4,400 individuals in California, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York and Texas.
“To succeed in the workplace, workers must know how to communicate in English,” said Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao. “These $4.9 million in English skills training grants will help thousands of workers realize the American dream for themselves and their families.”
In California, San Diego’s Imperial Counties Labor Council was awarded a $1 million grant to increase the workplace literacy of 150 incumbent Hispanic workers in the steel and shipbuilding sector of the construction industry. Participants will obtain an apprentice level entry into the industry after completing training.
The Career Launch! project will use its $1 million grant to deliver customer service and health care industry training to approximately 200 Somali, Ethiopian, Southeast Asian and Hispanic participants in Minnesota.
Through a grant of over $800,000 awarded to Nebraska’s Metropolitan Community College, approximately 1,389 individuals will receive English language training for careers in the construction, healthcare and transportation industries.
A $1 million grant will allow City University of New York Research Foundation to use cutting-edge instructional technologies to train approximately 240 persons in skills sought after by New York retail and food employers.
In Texas, a $1.1 million grant to SER-Jobs for Progress National Inc. will fund a work-based English skills program in four cities to prepare approximately 2,430 Hispanic workers for careers in the hospitality industry.
“Growing industries constantly seek out workers taking action to enhance their skills,” said Assistant Secretary of Labor for Employment and Training Emily Stover DeRocco. “Developing English language skills will enable workers associated with these five projects to compete for sought-after jobs in growing industries.”
The grants awarded today are the result of a competitive Solicitation for Grant Applications aimed at seeking strategies to address challenges and increase rates of English proficiency and high school graduation. For more on this and other employment and training programs at the Department of Labor, please visit www.doleta.gov.
Every immigrant who comes here should be required within five years to learn English or leave the country.
-- Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919), Kansas City Star (April 27, 1918).
Let me guess, prerequisite is a High School Diploma.
I suppose it's too much to hope for that this program will verify that the recipients of this largesse are here legally...
Prerequisite is a matricula consular ID.
Another program wasting tax dollars on illegals.
Let's start with English as the language of government - then we'll work on grammar (no ebonics either)
Let's start with English as the language of government - then we'll work on grammar (no ebonics either)
Another welfare program.
Here's a program that will SAVE us money: get rid of all the bi-lingual stuff. Immigants before the currently coddled ones learned it on their own. Some immigrants actually got - gasp! - tutors!
And, if a company wants to hire non-English speaking persons and wants to improve their lot (as well as their own by doing so), they can certainly pay for it or offer tuition reimbursement like so many others do.
Actually, I think this would be a better idea if it were directed at native English speakers. Some of the memos I see would give my 5th grade teacher apoplexy, were she still with us.
Anything will help. I saw a report yesterday that said that more people were trying to get into the Minneapolis/St. Paul adult English as a second language programs than they had room for.
The Twin Cities has a large immigrant population of Hmong and Somali LEGAL residents. There are a number of programs to teach them English, but not enought to meet the need.
We do need to support those legal immigrants who are trying to learn English.
bttt
I'll go along with the LEGAL part, but back off on teaching criminals who are here ILLEGALLY.
On a serious note, if you have ever tried to order a burger in Southern CA, then you know that English is getting to be more and more rare in the work place. If even the Golden Arches don't speak English...
I agree. I've just started tutoring two Hispanic women who work but speak no English. I find it amazing that one lady has worked at a fast-food restaurant for over a year and has picked up NO English. After four sessions, she has quickly begun to pick up English. She brought a friend, that's how I ended up with two students. I'm considering going into their Hispanic enclave to teach English if there's a need. I take a Spanish class and notice that the ESL class across the hall only has men. Hispanic women have a harder time. I'm not happy about all these immigrants coming in like this, but they're here and I feel I have a responsibility to help them. I teach with a voluntary organization. I assume that there are similar organizations around the country. Retired folks tended to take the training class.
Are you saying the Federal government should step in and fund programs like these?
"The Department of Labor is following the President's leadership by ensuring that vulnerable immigrants are protected, regardless of their status."
Note that "vulnerable immigrants" seems to be the new euphemism for illegal Hispanics.
Remarks Prepared for Delivery by U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao
LATINA Style 50
Thursday, February 9, 2006
[snip]
We live in a worldwide economy. That's why the President announced in his State of the Union address last week the American Competitiveness Initiative.
[snip]
The President recognizes the invaluable contributions that Hispanics and other immigrants make to our nation's workforce. So another element of the President's American Competitiveness Initiative is asking Congress to make it easier for foreign-born students to study in the United States and remain here to work. This is part of the President's comprehensive immigration reform plan. The goal of this plan is to secure our nation's borders, while honoring our nation's tradition of welcoming hard-working immigrants seeking opportunity.
That's why one feature of the President's comprehensive immigration reform is a Temporary Worker Program. It will match willing temporary workers with willing employers, when no American worker is available. The process will be streamlined, fair, and efficient, so people can find jobs and employers can find workers in a timely and legal manner.
The Department of Labor is following the President's leadership by ensuring that vulnerable immigrants are protected, regardless of their status. The Department has published and distributed health, safety and employment materials in a wide variety of languages, including Spanish. The goal is to help vulnerable immigrants learn about their rights under our nation's labor laws.
The Department has targeted enforcement of our nation's wage and hour laws on low-wage industries that often employ large numbers of vulnerable immigrants, including Hispanics. And it has hired more Spanish-speaking enforcement officers. As a result, the Department has recovered record back wages for immigrant workers, many of them Hispanics.
To help Hispanic immigrants build strong career paths, the Department has also launched a Hispanic Worker Initiative. The goal is to help Hispanics improve their language proficiency and gain the occupational skills needed to access jobs in rapidly growing industries. To help get the word out, the Department is reaching out to a wide variety of community-based Hispanic organizations.
[snip]
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