Southland companies focus on workplace literacy.Many employees lack linguistic tools to function in firms "Workplace literacy" was the key topic recently for hundreds of local employers. First, representatives of more than 100 companies attended a late April executive luncheon-seminar in Burbank sponsored by the eight-company steering committee steer·ing committee n. A committee that sets agendas and schedules of business, as for a legislative body or other assemblage. steering committee Noun of Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, Workplace Literacy Day. The eight, each of which has its own in-house training programs, included: Blue Cross of Southern California, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is a world-renowned hospital located in Los Angeles, California. History Cedars-Sinai is the result of a merger in 1961 between two major Los Angeles hospitals, Cedars of Lebanon and Mount Sinai Home for the Incurables, with Steve Broidy as , Kaiser Permanente Kaiser Permanente is an integrated managed care organization, based in Oakland, California, founded in 1945 by industrialist Henry J. Kaiser and physician Sidney R. Garfield. , Lear Astronics Corp., Los Angeles Times Los Angeles Times Morning daily newspaper. Established in 1881, it was purchased and incorporated in 1884 by Harrison Gray Otis (1837–1917) under The Times-Mirror Co. (the hyphen was later dropped from the name). , Olsten Corp., Packard Bell See Packard Bell NEC. Electronics Inc. and SoftKat. The following day, representatives of more than 200 Los Angeles-area employers attended workshops held at four separate locations in the county. Topics covered included: "Dealing with Different People," "How To Be a Better Communicator" and "Cultural Diversity in the Work Environment." Proceeds from the luncheon-seminar and the workshops will be donated to Working Smart, a program offered by the L.A. Unified School District's Adult Division for employers that want to upgrade their employees' skills. The proceeds will be used to help enhance the skills of the teachers engaged in the Working Smart program, said its coordinator, John O'Malley. The program is designed to address the problem identified by a recent SRA SrA abbr. senior airman Associates survey: One-fifth of California's work force is functionally illiterate Adj. 1. functionally illiterate - having reading and writing skills insufficient for ordinary practical needs illiterate - not able to read or write . The relatively new Working Smart program already has reached some 200 employees in the last two months, O'Malley said, and is scheduled to reach several thousand more later this year. Among them, he said: 6,700 at Cedars-Sinai and 300 to 1,300 at General Motors Corp.'s Van Nuys plant. Asked the difference between functional literacy and workplace literacy, Miriam Shubin replied: The former is the ability to comprehend and use printed and written information to function in society. The latter goes beyond the 3Rs -- reading, (w)riting and (a)rithmetic -- to mean possessing those communication and technological skills necessary to function in today's sophisticated workplace. These skills include the ability to communicate clearly, identify and solve problems, and work effectively with others, added the workplace literacy consultant for Olsten, which underwrote the luncheon-seminar. It's no longer sufficient to get the work done, Shubin said. Workers today must be able to "think, set up goals, solve problems, ask questions," she asserted. Such responsibilities previously, of course, were the domain of management, but with the downsizing (1) Converting mainframe and mini-based systems to client/server LANs. (2) To reduce equipment and associated costs by switching to a less-expensive system. (jargon) downsizing of domestic companies, whole layers of management have been eliminated. This has placed new responsibilities on workers who formerly were called clerks, for clerical tasks increasingly have been taken over by computers, indicated Frank N. Liquori, Olsten's chairman and chief executive officer. A temporary services Temporary Services is an artist collective of three people based in Chicago, Illinois, USA. They have been collaborating on art projects, public events, publications, and exhibitions since 1998. firm, Olsten has committed to skills enhancement of its temporaries as well as its own employees, he said. In the last five years, noted Peter A. Margarita, senior vice president of Olsten's Western division, the company has trained 10,000 persons in its 18 Southern California branches. Another reason to enhance workplace literacy, chimed in Robert H. Pola, regional human resource manager at Kaiser Permanente, the big health-care provider: Since management is more participatory and clerical jobs are disappearing, skills have to be better. Kaiser Permanente, which employs 34,000 medical and business workers and professionals in Southern California, last year had 5,900 employees take a wide variety of skill-enhancement courses offered by the employer, he said. Among the courses were those in professional, supervisory and pre-supervisory training. The health-care provider now has a program for employees who identify themselves as being deficient in reading, writing and problem solving problem solving Process involved in finding a solution to a problem. Many animals routinely solve problems of locomotion, food finding, and shelter through trial and error. to enroll in such courses with the assurance enrollment will be confidential. "We've had 110 self-referrals since Jan. 1," Pola reported -- some for whom English is a second language, others who may be termed failures of the public school system. Asked who pays for training, both Pola and Olsten's Margarita responded: "We pay; it's a cost of doing business." |
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