Blog Post: For adult ESOL programs to be truly successful, they need to effectively address work readiness skills

It is one thing to teach non-English speaking adults English, it is another to help them get fully acclimated to the United States.  To acclimate these individuals successfully, they must be taught how to succeed in the workplace as well as how to speak English. 

Well, local employers please take note, the book, "How to Get, Keep and Be Well Paid in a Job", has been added to the adult, community-education, ESOL program at Jupiter High School for advanced ESOL students. To see what topics are covered in the book, visit: http://www.outskirtspress.com/webpage.php?ISBN=9781432725297. 

The book will be used for reading exercises, to teach the participants how the workplace in the United States operates, and to help the ESOL students know the behaviors and skills that are needed to succeed in the workplace. 

The book, written by me (a former Citibank executive whose work readiness certification program was called the best in the country by the National Skills Standard Board), is a work readiness/job skills guide which is an enlightening and attitude-changing read.  After finishing this book, the ESOL students will understand how workplaces operate, why specific behaviors and skills are important to employers, and have a road map to forge a career rather than just hold a job. Best of all, the book accomplishes all this using a writing style that is light-hearted, fun, and easy-to-read, rather than the typical straight-forward, hard-to-get through textbook.  The book uses comparisons to everyday life to make key points.  For example, the book compares job interviewing to dating; obtaining advanced workplace skills to securing special codes in video games; looks at ethics using music downloads; and much more. 

In July, 2008, my book received a five star review (out of five stars) from the Midwest Book Review, an entity that makes recommendations for library systems.  The review concluded that, "How to Get, Keep, and Be Well Paid in a Job is highly recommended for community library career collections." 

If you run an ESOL (or youth-at-risk) program and would like to use the book in your program, you can contact me by email through this blog, or leave a message at 561-842-9942 and I will return your call as soon as possible. 

By the way, it is not enough to just teach work readiness, it must be done effectively.  To quote the representative of the National Skills Standard Board who called my program the best in the country, “Most work readiness certification programs I’ve seen do more harm than good.”  What makes for an effective work readiness program?  I’ll leave that for a future blog. 

As a side note, I was just nominated for and accepted a spot on the Children’s International Obesity Foundation’s Board of Advisors.  The CIOF is a 501(C)(3) not for profit corporation whose goal is to help fight childhood obesity.  Please take a moment to visit their web site.  The web site has a lot of excellent information dimensioning the problem (including the medical and social problems overweight kids often face in life), and has a section where kids can turn to for help.

Catch you in my next post.