Serving Internationally Trained ELL Professionals

1. Serving Internationally Trained ELL Professionals Mechelle Marler Career Pathway Program Supervisor Austin Community College, Adult Education mmarler@austincc.edu www.austincc.edu/careerpathways

2. Target Population for IET • Our ESL program serves over 2,000 students per year. Recruitment for our IET programs are conducted through: presentations at the ESL orientations, ongoing classroom presentations, community events, and advertisement. • Group registrations for IET and Internationally Trained Professional classes are held every 8 weeks, walk-in registrations take place weekly. • Each student is advised at the registrations. This helps us determine if they have a diploma from another country, goals and interests. • We advertise for ELL and HSE with: our website, social media, Spanish radio, and with culturally relevant local events.

3. Program Model Eligibility Requirements for training • Some of our trainings require you to be work eligible. • Students need to have a BEST Oral Score of 485 or higher and a BEST Literacy score of 68 or higher, to participate. • High school diploma is required for some trainings, but not for all of them (CDL, CNA). Enrollment • Students are directly enrolled into the training through AE staff • Most trainings follow the IBEST model and have extended hours beyond what is designated by the College Coordinating Board. The remainder of our trainings have an AE support class. Employment • All students have access to our ACC Career Center and receive ongoing employment support from the Career Center staff (ie. resume writing, career fairs, internships). All trainings incorporate workplace readiness in the curriculum.

4. Program Model Programs we offer: Internationally Trained Professionals: • Students with degrees from other countries. • Two classes are offered, one is IBEST, other is two days a week with seperate teachers. • Curriculum: one day is workplace readiness and other day is high level Workplace English. • Translation of foreign diplomas • Monthly networking meetings • Employer informational interviews

5. Program Model Programs we offer: • Industry Certifications: 3 weeks to two semester classes, Accounting and Bookkeeping, HVAC, Truck Driving, CNA, Computer User Support, and Office Clerk, Paraeducator. These classes follow the I-BEST model, or we provide a support class. • Level One certificates: Approximately one year to complete, in-demand occupations, for college credit • Level One certificates and Paraeducator, require classes prior to the start of the training.

6. Performance • Our students are measured on the completion of their industry certification or the college Level one certification. • Students are progress tested ITEC Plan • Students are advised prior to starting the program and during the program

7. Challenges • Meeting the scheduling needs of the students. • Students wanting to attend several different trainings. • Childcare and transportation • Purchasing required student books and tools.

8. Highlights • AE advisers/Career Navigators providing targeted advising. • AE advisers have the same access as the college advisers. • Students have access to all of the services offered through the college (ie. career services, internships, free bus passes, departmental advising). • College integration • High retention and completion of IET trainings. • Student Internship/mentoring program within Adult Education.

9. Serving Internationally Trained ELL Professionals • Denise Hinojosa Orand • denise.orand@sjcd.edu • 281-478-3615 • 8060 Spencer Highway Office C1.207 • Pasadena, Tx. 77505

10. Target Population for IET • There are 2 primary ways we recruit this target population for IET courses: • 1. We use TEAMS to analyze students currently in our program that may qualify • 2. We work with our collaborating partners to help us spread the word about the workforce certifications we can offer We run separate intake and information sessions for separate targets. All IET is targeted separately with different career clusters recruited separately. We found this helps us send a clearer message about what we can offer resulting in a better match of students we are targeting and students coming to our sessions. While we do have targets for EL Civics IET and IET students, we do not offer different course options for these 2 groups. The same options are available to all students in our programs as long as they meet our eligibility guidelines.

11. Program Model • What is needed for success? • Generally speaking we look for students who are a high intermediate or above in both language and academics (we have some variables depending on the course) • Some type of bridge or transition is necessary even if it is short (as short as 12 hours) even for students who score high on assessments • Most of our certifications do not require a HSD or HSE but some do • Our AEL program falls under workforce development at our college and in our consortium which helps in building relationships with employers in our area

12. Program Model We try to offer a variety of options within the following primary career cluster targets : • Healthcare • Education • Manufacturing / Construction and we try to offer a variety of options within those clusters • In most cases students attend our AEL support course 2 days a week and the WF certification 2 days a week with the AEL course beginning first and ending last • We align, but separate the two courses in our program

13. Program Model

14. Program Model • Alignment to the workforce certification course with the support course “supporting” the students before, during, and after the workforce certification • Students should be engaged in activities that connect basic skills, workforce skills, and the target language (Academic and Workforce English tied to the workforce course) • Grouping of students to allow work on common learning objectives while taking into consideration student strengths and needs ( in working with ELL students there should be consideration of ELPS and scaffolding strategies utilized through SIOP) • Based on input from students we gathered that the support course truly needed to help them complete the certification course and not add extra work that was not directly related to the certification as that made succeeding more difficult. Students work on developing study guides and resources for the certification course within small groups in their support course and then share those resources as part of the support course

15. Performance • Planning to develop basic skills and workforce skills simultaneously • For IET students the basic skills instruction must align to the WF instruction in a very focused way. We have found students do best in cohorts where they are all working on the same thing at the same time. The basic skills instructor needs to understand the correlation between the 2 courses to teach effectively. • As in any other course we have to gather information to meet the needs of our students. Grouping and scaffolding is important to success in all of our IET courses. • ITEC plan development: • Students should participate in meaningful learning activities about their target career cluster to develop good plans after reviewing and selecting their best options. Interacting with those in their target field as part of their training and/or IET experience is part of this

16. Challenges Clear information about what we offer and who would benefit from it to get the message out and help us better target students • Recruiting the right students • Getting buy in from all involved • Building strong relationships with collaborative partners • Contextualizing the curriculum Staff and students seeing value in what we are offering. The AEL course is not an optional extra, it is an essential extra, a bonus even. Relaying that value to those outside our programs may also needed to get their buy in and support. Reach out to those who may have a mutual interest in the services we provide – target your partners the way you target your students We have aligned the basic skills to the WF certification courses in a way that is fairly seamless by extending the work to take place in both courses. Study tools and practices are built into the support courses so we show students how to succeed.

17. Challenges Look for what is already in place and see if that can work. Reach out to others and review timelines and procedures for things like curriculum cycles and reviews. • Navigating the steps to build pathways ourselves before we can offer them to our students • Monitoring students beyond their course session(s) or program participation • Documentation of extra expenditures and services • Providing the additional guidance and resources needed for students to succeed in Tier 3 services Maintain a good relationship with students so you can continue reaching out to them. We all need staff for student services and a data base to assist us in establishing and maintaining customer relationships with them. We have to develop processes to follow up and maintain documentation for all the extras IET students need. Determining ways to fund or access these extra services to assist students in educational and financial planning. Is the service available through someone else or can we take on these additional duties?

18. Highlights and Successes • These programs increase the opportunities available to our students in a way that truly can make a difference in the lives of our students • Connecting skilled immigrants to new employment opportunities can help fill gaps in the workforce • Developing these programs has provided us with new strategies for working with students and new information regarding the impact of these programs and what our students can actually do with support • We have been able to build new collaborative relationships internally and externally which expands the resources available within our programs and to our students

19. QUESTIONS