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Fall/Winter '05 Laborers’ Training... Targets Language Barriers.
Do you have difficulty understanding the
foreman’s directions? Is it
hard for you to communicate with your co-workers on
the jobsite? Are
your frustrated because training is not effective for you because you do
not speak English? Laborers’ training is ready to help.
Laborers-AGC Education and Training Fund partnered with the School of
International Training, an internationally recognized leader in language
instruction, in the development and piloting of an intensive training
program focused on the language barriers that so often interfere with
the effective training of LIUNA members. For nearly forty years
Laborers’ training has provided a window of opportunity and a door to a
progressive career path within the construction industry. As LIUNA’s
membership continues to grow and diversify, new approaches continue to
emerge to ensure training remains the stepping-stone to success. One of
these initiatives is the Vocational English for Speakers of Others
Languages Program (VESOL).
The VESOL Program is a four-week intensive course, for instructors of
Laborers-AGC’s affiliated training funds, that centers on the principles
and skills needed to effectively teach basic English vocabulary to adult
learners. Upon completing the four-week course, instructors return to
their training centers empowered with new skills that enable them to
provide trade instruction to LIUNA members who do not speak English and
who often do not enjoy the benefits of training because of a language
barrier.
Since the program was implementation in early 2005, 12 instructors have
become certified VESOL instructors. “The commitment level of the
instructors participating in the VESOL program is extraordinary”, said
John LeConche, Laborers-AGC’s Executive Director, “these instructors
have seen first hand the frustration and potential danger language
barriers can cause on a jobsite and in a classroom and have stepped up
to the plate to do something about it.”
The ultimate beneficiaries of this program are LIUNA members with little
or no English speaking ability. Through instruction by VESOL certified
instructors members will be given the opportunity to learn important
words like the names of tools, materials and equipment used on the job
and common safety terms they may hear on the jobsite, just to mention a
few ways the training will impact their lives.
“The program not only breaks down language barriers, but it opens the
door to training, which is needed to ensure success and growth in the
industry. It’s about bringing people together and improving
communication,” said LeConche. “Today’s jobsites are as diverse as they
have ever been and we can’t let language barriers stand in the way of
proper communication and full understanding, without doing something
about it.” And that is exactly what the VESOL Program does; it puts
everyone on a level playing field and offers another chance for success
to LIUNA members.
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