AGENDA FOR THE '90s: WORKPLACE LITERACY By SECRETARY OF STATE GEORGE H. RYAN

During my years as Lieutenant Governor, while helping Illinois businesses market their wares overseas, employers spoke to me of the need for more literate workers. I am pleased to be able to respond to the literacy problem in my new capacity as Secretary of State and State Librarian.

Three factors make literacy in the workplace a pressing issue for our day: an increase in higher skilled service industry jobs, the need for manufacturing workers who can easily retrain to meet industry changes, and a shrinking pool of new workers from which to draw. We simply must have workers who are able to communicate, compute, process and analyze information if we are to compete in the world marketplace. School reform is not the immediate answer because 75 percent of the workforce in the year 2000 is on the job now.

Through the Secretary of State workplace literacy grant program, we are creating models that demonstrate how partnerships among management, labor and the education community can make a difference both in and out of the workplace. Matching grants of up to $10,000 are available to businesses providing workers with onsite workplace basic skills instruction, including reading, writing, math and English as a second language. Some companies provide classroom instruction and others offer one-on-one tutoring. Some hold classes on company time while others schedule instruction immediately before or after work.

Matching grants function like seed money to encourage employers to start literacy programs for their employees. Programs are designed by the employers to meet specific needs. Various incentives and recruitment techniques are used.

How do we measure success? In addition to improved reading levels, companies involved in our program have reported increased safety, reduced scrap, less need to redo work, better job advancement, and enhanced employee morale. Workers who previously were unable to perform calculations involving decimals or fractions are now able to make correct measurements and avoid such dangers as, at National Building Systems, hitting a nail with a saw.

At Elgin Sweeper, non-English-speaking employees have gained a better understanding of company policies and practices. Employees at West Chicago's General Mills plant are showing higher concentration rates, higher quality of work and improved efficiency

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on the assembly line. In addition, casual conversations between English and non-English speakers have increased, helping to better integrate the employees.

ITT Bell and Gossett in Morton discovered that bargaining between management and labor has become more open and congenial based on trust built through the basic skills program. One spokesman says the company has moved from an "us and them" philosophy to a "we" point of view — a winning situation for everyone.

An unanticipated benefit reported by several companies is the personal growth experienced by the workers, including helping their children with homework for the first time. This positive intergenerational focus is important in creating a future generation of literate workers.

My goals for the 1990s include providing businesses with the tools they need to make starting new literacy programs easy. My office will actively solicit the support of businesses to include literacy services as part of their employee assistance programs, and we will showcase the most successful programs.

The problem of educating the state's workforce does not lend itself to a quick and easy fix. The private and public sectors must share costs, resources and strategies. Workers must be assured their jobs are not in jeopardy if they admit they need help. Unions must be included in the development of basic skills programs. Middle level managers as well as top level people must be committed. Most of all, none of us can assume that someone else will solve the problem. We are all in this together and must work together to become a more literate state. •

Page 10 / Illinois Municipal Review / August 1991