A third model is that of a
business employing its own instructional staff. Only one
such program was interviewed for this paper&emdash;the
workplace ESL program at StorageTek, a computer information
storage company in the Denver, Colorado area. StorageTek Also important to this effort
to improve the basic skills and the English skills of the
workers was the company's move to implement a Total Quality
Management (TQM) system: Technology had already started to
step up the basic level of skills needed, and now job
responsibilities were further affected as the company moved
toward a team environment and a quality management approach.
All employees needed to be able to use computers,
communicate in teams, solve problems, and make decisions.
Because many workers at StorageTek are nonnative speakers of
English, oral as well as literacy skills were lacking in
many employees. StorageTek decided to offer instruction to
improve basic skills, English language skills, and
cross-cultural skills. Courses were eight weeks in
length and included Basic ESL; Reading for the Workplace;
Writing for the Workplace; Problem Solving for the
Workplace; Classes team taught with workplace
trainers/specialists on specific customized topics; Test of
the Adult Literacy Survey (TALS) classes [a class to
prepare learners to pass the math and reading tests of the
National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS)]; Presentation
Skills; Pronunciation; and Communication in the
Workplace. Because the instructors were
employees of the company, it was easier for the program to
be completely workplace-based. Communication between the
first level supervisors and the program was also facilitated
by this factor. The team-taught classes where the ESL
instructor worked with the subject specialist were very
successful, as were the pre-classes taught to prepare
language minority workers for computer classes or other
job-specific classes. Unfortunately, downsizing of
the company has followed the shift to the high performance
workplace. Managers are no longer allowed unlimited access
to the classes, and staff has been cut back. The future of
the education department as an entity within StorageTek is
not known. It is also in doubt whether StorageTek's language
minority employees, mostly Southeast Asian, will continue to
receive the cultural and linguistic training needed to
ensure that they have the skills necessary to keep their
jobs in the midst of this change.
The StorageTek workplace ESL instructional program evolved
over a period of years. Several years ago, as the company
started to hire language minority employees, corporate
trainers informed the corporate manager about the language
and literacy needs of these nonnative employees. Tutoring by
company volunteers was offered. Then the corporate vice
president for manufacturing decided to hire trained
instructors as part of the company's staff.