Celebrating National Apprenticeship Week in Adult Education

Tom Sticht, International Consultant in Adult Education (Ret.)

During November 13-17, 2023, we celebrate National Apprenticeship Week. Adult educators are looking forward to learning more about the newly proposed WORKS (Workforce Opportunity and Reskilling for Knowledge and Success) Act. As adult educators we are always in an “apprenticeship” mode learning about ways to improve our professional offerings for adult learners.  We recognize this need to make adult education relevant to adults when, as called for in the forthcoming WORKS Act, we discuss contextualizing instruction in the bodies of knowledge adults are seeking, such as for gaining jobs, upskilling on a job, parenting in family literacy programs, learning civics in citizenship-related programs, developing better health-related practices,  and other knowledge content areas.

During November 13-17, 2023, we celebrate National Apprenticeship Week. Adult educators are looking forward to learning more about the newly proposed WORKS (Workforce Opportunity and Reskilling for Knowledge and Success) Act. As adult educators we are always in an “apprenticeship” mode learning about ways to improve our professional offerings for adult learners.  We recognize this need to make adult education relevant to adults when, as called for in the forthcoming WORKS Act, we discuss contextualizing instruction in the bodies of knowledge adults are seeking, such as for gaining jobs, upskilling on a job, parenting in family literacy programs, learning civics in citizenship-related programs, developing better health-related practices,  and other knowledge content areas.

A focus on contextualizing adult education in the content knowledge that adults find relevant to their lives has persisted over the last 110 years, starting in 1911 with Cora Wilson Stewart’s Moonlight Schools of Kentucky, through World War I, the Americanization English language schools of the great depression, World War II,  the War on Poverty of the Kennedy/Johnson presidencies, the Vietnam War, the Adult Education Act with its focus on helping adults earn a high school diploma, then adding a focus more on helping adults find and function in well paying work, into the current civics education for English language learners, family literacy, health literacy, and technology literacy programs.

For those interested in learning more about evidence for and practices in the preparation and delivery of adult basic education programs focused on what adults find relevant to the contemporary needs I have produced three separate reports, with some overlap among them, which may be found of interest/use in staff development:

1. Functional Context Education: 1987                                                                                            
Chapter 1: Youth and Adult Literacy, Employability, and Productivity Problems in the United States.
Chapter 2: Functional Context Education: Concepts from the Cognitive Sciences and Experience
in Training “Mid-Level Literates”.
Chapter 3: FCE Case Study #1: Literacy Programs for Cook, Automotive Repair, Communication, Medical, and Supply Clerk Workers.
Chapter 4: FCE Case Study #2: Reading and Mathematics Programs for Career Advancement
Using Teachers, Books, Computers, and Peer Instructors.
Chapter 5: FCE Case Study #3:A Functional Context Electronics Technician’s Course that
Integrates Basic Skills and Basic Electricity and Electronics Education.
Chapter 6: Guidelines and Methods for Developing Occupationally Related Basic Skills Programs
(Online at: https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED342878)

2. Functional Context Education 1997: Making Learning Relevant
Part 1 The Power of Adult Literacy Education
Chapter 1: The Growing Value of Adult Literacy Education in the New Millennium
Chapter 2: The Literacy Skills of Adults: Assessments and Issues
Chapter 3: Some Challenges of Diversity for Adult Literacy Education
Part 2 Cognitive Science Foundations for Adult Literacy Education
Chapter 4: Views On Contemporary Cognitive Science
Chapter 5: Introduction to Functional Context Education
Chapter 6: Functional Context Education and Literacy Instruction
Part 3 Case Studies in Functional Context Education
Chapter 7: Functional Context Education Case Study # 1: Functional Literacy (FLIT) Program
Chapter 8: Functional Context Education Case Study # 2: A Pre-employment, Job-related Basic Skills Program
Chapter 9: Functional Context Education Case Study # 3 : An Integrated Basic Skills and Electronics Technician’s Course
Chapter 10: Functional Context Education Case Study # 4: An Intergenerational Literacy Parenting Program
(Online at: http://library.copian.ca/item/127)

3. Functional Context Education 2005: Making Learning Relevant in the 21^st Century
Part 1
Chapter 1. Functional Context Education (FCE) materials and principles available online.
Chapter 2. Research and development related to FCE principles and methods in several industrialized nations: Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, United Kingdom.
Chapter 3. “Relevance” at national levels and foundational concepts of literacy in FCE.
Part 2  
Chapter 4. Functional Context Education in historical perspective.
Chapter 5. Overview of methodologies used in adult literacy research for determining what is relevant to youth and adult learners.
Part 3
Chapter 6. Two case studies of integrated vocational and basic skills education. Case Study #1: Workplace Literacy. Case Study #2: Integrating Basic Skills with Vocational Education:
Part 4
Chapter 7. Three case studies integrating basic skills education with job training, parenting, and health education. Case Study #3: Workplace Literacy for Job Advancement; Case Study #4: Family Literacy:. Case Study #5: Health Literacy.

For more on content oriented, relevant adult education see Sticht, T. (1997). The theory behind content-based instruction (online at:  https://www.ncsall.net/index.html@id=433.html) and Sticht et al. (1998). Passports to Paradise: The struggle to teach and to learn on the margins of adult education (online at: https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED418238)