Unemployed or underemployed adults in Dallas—like anywhere else—often don’t even think about college, or if they do enroll, they lack the basic skills needed to succeed.
That’s the population El Centro College (ECC) is targeting in a new partnership with the Dallas Urban League and Workforce Solutions Greater Dallas.
ECC received a $600,000 Adult Basic Education Innovation Grant from the
Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board this month to develop the partnership, which aims to provide basic skills instruction to prepare students for career training at the college.
“We are about the same thing: the advancement of young people from urban communities through education,” AACC President and CEO Walter Bumphus told participants at a
meeting in June that brought together leaders from urban community colleges and National Urban League chapters in those cities.
Not ready for college
The project funded by the grant will start in October with 150 students who have tested very low in developmental education, said Pyper Wilkins, executive dean at ECC. These students “are not ready for college, and some of them might need GED or ESL (English as a second language) assistance,” she said.
During the first year, students in the program will receive training at Dallas Urban League facilities in basic workplace skills, such as computer applications and workplace vocabulary, along with developmental courses in English and math. Instruction will be provided by both ECC faculty and urban league staff.
At the end of the year, the students will be enrolled at ECC ready to start college-level work leading to a certificate in welding, office support, transportation and material moving, health care or another high-demand occupation. ECC will work with Workforce Solutions Greater Dallas, the local workforce development board, to determine what kinds of jobs will be available, depending on labor market conditions, Wilkins said.
Most of the students are expected to be age 25 to 30, Wilkins said.
“We anticipate they will be adults who decide to come back to school," she said. "They could be high school dropouts, high school graduates who never tried to go to college, or the recently unemployed who realize they can’t really do anything without more training.”
Wilkins has found that some people who have enrolled at ECC are not even ready for developmental classes. She’s seen some students who can’t even read at the sixth-grade level, “so they really need the basic skills training that this kind of program offers.”
A helping hand
Both ECC and the Urban League will carry out the initial recruitment and assessment and will provide counseling, financial advising and retention services. The college will provide academic advising, and all participants will be required to attend small group and one-on-one advising sessions.
The Urban League will provide mentoring and will assign a case manager to each student to monitor their progress and refer them to counselors when needed. Workforce Solutions Greater Dallas and the Urban League will help participants secure childcare and transportation and will offer job search assistance.
The project is based on the Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training (I-BEST) model developed by the
Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges. I-BEST combines instruction in basic skills and college-level professional and technical skills aimed at preparing students for earning credentials in fields that offer good wages and career advancement.
"This program is going to allow the college to reach and educate a whole group of students we had difficulty helping before,” Wilkins said. “A lot of students are afraid of going to college off the street but are comfortable going to an institution like the Urban League.”