BCCC offers first Basic Skills Plus program | Eastern North Carolina Now

Press Release

    Classes have begun this winter at Beaufort County Community College in a new program that college officials hope will be successful in providing Basic Skills students with the skills they need to enter the work force.

    For the first time, beginning this month, some BCCC students enrolled in General Educational Development, or GED, courses will also be enrolled in a Certified Nursing Assistant I course at the college. Once they receive their GEDs, these students will have specific job-related skills that will allow them to immediately enter the work force rather than having to wait for job-specific classes after they have completed their high school equivalency work, according to Laurie Weston, BCCC's Basic Skills coordinator.

    The program, known as Basic Skills Plus, was recently approved by the N.C. General Assembly and the state Board of Community Colleges. Since 2010, BCCC and some 34 other community colleges have been approved to offer Basic Skills Plus programs that prepare students in some 85 different career pathways. Community college Basic Skills programs statewide have traditionally been popular with adult students who did not finish high school or are not fluent in English.

    In 2011, 138,636 North Carolinians were enrolled in adult basic education, English as a Second Language, adult high school and General Educational Development, or GED, programs.
But there is growing concern amongcommunity college officials about the significant number of students who do not progress from basic skills and literacy programs into meaningful education and job-training programs that help these students get a good job.

    "Frequently, the process of getting the GED, taking the placement exam for enrolling in curriculum or work training programs, and enrolling in and achieving success in work-related or college level courses leaves students caught in a cycle of remediation that discourages and frustrates them to the point that they withdraw or fail their courses," Weston said.

    Statewide, about 50 percent of students who complete Basic Skills programs like the GED do not go on for additional training. And at BCCC, only five percent of students who started in the lowest developmental math classin Fall 2008 were still in college and had earned a degree or diploma by Spring 2011. "A GED is not enough anymore," Weston said. "This is an economy where employers and businesses are looking for trained and skilled workers." And Basic Skills Plus at BCCC plans to provide that training, she said.

    "Hopefully this will give our students a higher rate of success," Weston said.

    The goal of Basic Skills Plus is to "fundamentally change the way Adult Basic Education is delivered" and ensure that state policies encourage dramatically improved results of obtaining job-related skills and credentials of value in the labor market, according to Scott Rawls, president of the state community college system.

    The program works byprovidingemployment skills, job-specific occupational and technical skills, and developmental education, if needed, to students enrolled concurrently in a GED program. To implement Basic Skills Plus, local colleges have the flexibility to use up to 20 percent of their state literacy funds to redesign their programs to include features like combined basic skills and occupational and technology skills, partnerships with employers and local workforce boards, or other effortsthat help students succeed.

    Working with the Region Q Workforce Development Board and BCCC's Human Resources Development, Continuing Education and Certified Nursing Assistant faculty and staff, BCCC identified the CNA I program as the first career pathway for the Basic Skills Plus program.

    Students in the BCCC program will attend school two days a week, from 2 to 9:30 p.m., working on their GED studies in the afternoon and CNA I classes that same night. That schedule will give most students the chance to work part-time if they need to do so with a minimal interruption to their schedules, Weston said. The program will also give students real-life examples that they can apply to their GED studies, because the Basic Skills and Nursing Assistant faculty have worked together to provide context-based instruction and experiences in both classrooms, she said.

    Students who successfully complete their courses will be encouraged to continue their studies which may lead to a practical nursing or associate's degree from BCCC or the ability to transfer to a four-year college or university to pursue a bachelor's degree, she said. In addition, students in the program will have the chance to earn a Career Readiness Certificate which a growing number of employers use to confirm job-related skills, Weston said. In future months, BCCC may consider expanding its Basic Skills Plus programs to include training in automotive technology, early childhood education certificate programs, and welding.