Performance Narrative
Grantee: P116W090125 Milwaukee Area Technical College
Report: 2010 - 2012 Final Report
Project Summary
The Milwaukee Area Technical College’s Pathways to Construction Trades, PaCT, was a contextualized teaching and learning project to help dislocated workers with low academic levels or language barriers to increase their skills through hands-on shop instruction in construction and related areas. Students increased math and language skills, learned construction skills including green technology and obtained industry recognized certifications. Participants learned about career pathways, created a career portfolio and gained confidence to successfully access college career programs or return to the workforce. 88% of the PaCT graduates are currently employed or are continuing their education.
Duane Schultz
700 West State Street
Milwaukee, WI 53233
414-297-6815
Mona Schroeder-Beers
1205 South 70th Street
West Allis, WI 53214
414-302-2604
PaCT website: http://www.matc.edu/pact/index.cfm
Curriculum Guide: PaCT – Learn, Practice, Build
Introductory Overview
The inspiration for this project began June 4, 2009 when Arne Duncan, U.S. Secretary of Education, spoke at a news conference/listening session held at Milwaukee Area Technical College. At this session he announced that $7 million from The Department of Education Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) will award 28 grants aimed at training dislocated workers. Duncan said, "Community and technical colleges can help experienced professionals learn new skills to work in emerging industries, like renewable energy, or retrain to fill critical shortages in engineering, nursing and other fields. Milwaukee Area Technical College, and community colleges across this nation, represents that opportunity to reinvent our workforce. The dedicated, hard-working professionals who will come to our community colleges to learn a new career are the same people who will rebuild our cities and towns. Education is the catalyst for a strong economy."
These words moved the leaders in the School of Technology and Applied Sciences (TAS) to meet with Milwaukee Workforce Investment Board members and staff from the local dislocated worker agency (HIRE Center) to discuss local needs. The underserved and most-in-need populations identified at this meeting were dislocated workers with low academic skills and language barriers. These individuals were limited to Adult Basic Education (ABE) and English as a Second Language (ESL) instruction while their peers, with stronger academic and language skills, met the entrance requirement to enroll in occupational programs to learn new job skills. Once trained, these individuals returned to the workforce while those with low skill levels still remained in ABE and ESL classes. Many of the low-skilled individuals had been laid off from manufacturing jobs. Construction careers held a new promise and a new future. From these assumptions, the concept for the Pathways to Construction Trades, PaCT, was created. The main goal of the project was to successfully train four cohorts of dislocated workers with academic deficiencies or linguistic barriers in basic construction skills and integrated green skills via a 512 hour course resulting in a skills certificate, post-secondary credit, and an employability plan. From these discussions, the college developed a grant and submitted it for consideration.
In October 2009, Milwaukee Area Technical College received a $547,000 three-year grant through the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education. However, the grant was funded at $200,000 less than requested. MATC administration and project staff spent the next few months revising the budget and planning for implementation. The program coordinator was hired, carpentry faculty was identified to design the curriculum, and a preliminary agreement was made to leverage funding for training. Budget meetings between partners continued until agreements were made which resulted in reducing the number of instruction hours for the English speaking cohorts (from 512 to 420) and offering ABE and ESL instruction sequentially verses simultaneously as identified in the proposal as the Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training, I-BEST or Regional Industry Skills Education, RISE, models.
During the initial six months the project demonstrated the following accomplishments. Many of the curriculum advances were supported through a $27,000 curriculum grant from project partner, the Milwaukee Area Workforce Investment Board, the MAWIB.
• A new course, Energy Efficiency in the Building Trades (Green Building Technology), was incorporated into both the PaCT Construction course and the PaCT Fundamentals of Construction.
• All PaCT courses were reviewed by current MATC construction faculty. Comments and suggestions were documented and the curriculum was reevaluated by the PaCT staff and additional modifications were made to the curriculum.
• PaCT courses were evaluated over the project time frame with revisions made as needed.
• All Construction classes were uploaded to the Worldwide Instructional Design System (WIDS).
• OSHA materials were translated into Spanish and Hmong.
· Materials and resources were identified to support the PaCT curriculum for the Spanish
and Hmong Cohorts.
• Academic resources were identified to assist with skill development.
· Project staff worked effectively with the outside evaluator who followed the evaluation
plan.
Project staff secured a facility lease agreement with the Wisconsin Regional Training Partnership (WRTP) to serve as the PaCT project training site. This agreement fit within the limits of the project budget for PaCT. The facility required a build out including heat in the classrooms and shop area, and the completion of bathroom facilities. Therefore the first two cohorts completed much of their training in less than favorable conditions. Once winter hit in Wisconsin, many of the students complained of the cold; this had an impact on their attendance and attitude. The other budget issue, money to purchase tools and supplies, was resolved by tying it into the leverage contract.
Despite early implementation challenges, the PaCT project successfully carried out the goals of the program as 88% of the dislocated workers who completed the training either found employment or continued their education. Over the course of the grant, 4 cohorts of dislocated workers were served: 3 native English speaking with low academic skills and 1 Spanish language group. The availability of a Hmong cohort was identified when the grant was written. However, once the training was in place for the Hmong population, unfortunately their unemployment benefits for this group ran out/timed out. This resulted in the project not being able to include a Hmong language group in the project. In conversations with the FIPSE Program Office, it was felt that the project was overzealous to offer the training in three languages and it would be best to concentrate on English and Spanish.
When the proposal was written the partners didn’t anticipate the strong national and local economic downturns that negatively impacted construction jobs. In April of 2011, the PaCT workforce development partner decided not to fund additional dislocated worker cohorts. As a result, the project staff received funding for a replication project serving at-risk youth. This brought new challenges and resulted in more lessons learned. During the last six month of the project the faculty and staff concentrated on curriculum materials for future replication projects. These materials can be found on the PaCT website.
The Problem to Address
In 2005, the average age of construction workers nationally was 39, three years older than in 1985. Due to the aging of this workforce and the lack of new workers entering the industry, labor market projections show there will soon be a serious shortage of construction workers. When the proposal was written, J. Doug Pruitt, president of the Associated General Contractors of America, stated that the shortage in a variety of careers, such as welders, pipefitters, electrical, plumbing, carpentry, and HVAC (heating, ventilation, air conditioning), is expected to continue for the next decade. In its October 2008 strategic plan, the Construction Industry Institute reported that the numbers of qualified construction workers are insufficient to replenish the aging boomer-era workforce that has now started to retire in strong numbers. The trend, it reports, “has differing levels of impact for different trades and is especially severe in trades requiring more training such as plumbing, electrical, and carpentry.” The Construction Labor Research Council estimates that each year, for the next decade, the construction industry will need 95,000 replacement workers and another 90,000 new workers. A 2009 report from the President’s Council of Economic Advisors projects strong growth in construction, including the construction of manufacturing and retail buildings, roads and bridges, utility systems, and homes. Investments under the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act will contribute to construction employment growth in the next few years.”
Nationally, there is a growing need to create programs that help lower-skilled adults earn post-secondary credentials. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, through 2014, 24 of the 30 fastest-growing occupations will require workers with postsecondary training, an occupational certificate or degree, yet nearly half the workforce has just a high-school education or less. Approximately 25 million workers aged 18 to 64 lack a high school credential or GED while 52 million adults have had no postsecondary education. According to the Digest of Education Statistics, only about one in four adults with less than a high-school education participates in any kind of training as compared to one-third of high school graduates. Of those who do seek training, most do not persist long enough to earn any kind of credential.
Postsecondary institutions are often unprepared to help lower-skilled adults to overcome the challenges they face even though such credentials – technical certificates or diplomas – are now essential for individuals to enter into existing family-supporting jobs. The Center on Wisconsin Strategy reports that Southeastern Wisconsin will see openings in construction jobs and recommends that Wisconsin technical colleges develop courses for lower-skilled students that provide skills for success in postsecondary pursuits. In its 2008 report, the Center focuses on the need to create connections to higher-wage jobs via postsecondary education and states, “It is therefore crucial that we find ways to help lower-skilled workers make successful transitions from basic education to postsecondary training that has a well-articulated career path.”
At the local level, a 2006 study by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Employment and Training Institute found that within the Milwaukee area “only 12% of skilled construction workers (i.e., carpenters, electricians, plumbers, sheet metal workers, etc.) were minorities. This lack of education credentials contributes to this disparity. According to the HIRE Center, demographics of their client base indicates that 45% of Hispanics and 56% of Hmong have less than a high school education. In the past 20 years, the composition of the manufacturing workforce in the Milwaukee area has changed dramatically, propelled by a large influx of limited-English immigrant workers who now fill a substantial portion of basic production positions in area factories. Many of these workers have been dislocated due to the decline of low-value-added manufacturing in recent years. The continuing dilemma has been that vocational training programs are rarely accessible to academically disadvantaged and limited-English dislocated workers.
The challenge that the PaCT project addressed was to develop and pilot innovative strategies to help lower-skilled adults earn marketable postsecondary credentials. The project’s strategy consisted of a contextualized teaching and learning approach which integrates adult basic education/ESL services within construction training to increase workers' skills in math, language, and building technology, particularly including energy conservation and “green” building and design.
Contextual Learning is reality-based, outside-of-the-classroom experience, within a specific context which serves as a catalyst for students to utilize their disciplinary knowledge. It presents learners with a forum for further formation of their personal values, faith, and professional development. Beyond the challenge of direct, meaningful experience, contextual learning requires reflection to build lasting cognitive connections. "Simply put, contextualized learning is “Learning by doing.” But to have a successful contextualized learning program it is necessary to include the following eight components:1- Collaborating, 2- Making connections that hold meaning, 3- Nurturing the individual, 4- Self-regulated learning, 5- Reaching high standards, 6- Doing significant work, 7- Critical and creative thinking, and 8- Using authentic assessment.
In the PaCT project it was critical for all instructors to collaborate and coordinate their instruction. This required instructors to revise and rearrange their curriculum so each would instructor support the overall classroom instructional approach. The math and language arts instructor became the glue that connected academics to shop instruction. When decimals were taught they were also used in the shop. Project staff did experience what happens when an instructor chooses not to collaborate. This happened during the training of the first cohort. The math and language arts instructor delivered his own curriculum and didn’t reinforce instruction of the other instructors. Student didn’t see the relevance and quit attending the academic portions of the instruction. To salvage the training for first cohort, project staff changed instructors for the math portion of the training. One significant lesson learned through this experience related to staffing-- it emphasized the importance of selecting faculty members who are flexible and willing to be part of a project that requires creativity and teamwork.
Another component of contextualized teaching is to make connections that hold meaning. The following is an example to which all students could relate:
Contextualized teaching works as noted by both student comments and the project data. The project collected pre and post test scores in reading and math. Prior to training, participant academic levels were measured through the administration of the TABE and again at the end of training. The charts included in section E of this report outline the pre- and post- grade level equivalencies for each of the cohorts. Most participants made great gains in math, but reading scores lagged behind. This was noted by project faculty, staff and the project evaluator. Several changes were made to help participants. Cohort four consequently made the greatest gains in reading; it is believed that the improvements in scores were due to better attendance by the participants, more significant contextualization of the content and the use of Skills Tutor, an online reading program that is individualized and adapted to each participant's skill level.
The project data show that that the project was successful as it met many of its benchmarks. However, there were factors unforeseen at the onset of the project, primarily the weak state of the economy. The lack of job opportunities in the construction industry made it difficult for the participants to find apprenticeship and related labor positions. The state of the economy in the Milwaukee area, particularly in construction, became the determining factor for the MAWIB to discontinue leverage funding for an additional PaCT cohort. In addition, the average age of a PaCT student was forty-eight years of age. A number of the younger students pursued construction careers, as they had the physical ability and time to invest in the training necessary for a career in construction. An apprenticeship in construction is a 4-5 year commitment. Many of the older students looked at other options since they had neither the physical capability nor the desire to enter such a physically demanding career. Many of the older participants looked at construction-related programs and other MATC programs and set career plans accordingly. The Appliance Repair program became quite popular, with several of the PaCT graduates enrolling in that program after their cohort finished. Job opportunities in the local area for appliance servicing are strong and the physical skills and knowledge was compatible with what the PaCT students had already learned.