A shift in the traditional focus of Adult Education

Editor’s note: This is the fourth in a series of summer articles designed to introduce the local Adult Education menu of services to area residents. Future articles will focus on the following categories: Workforce Training, Personal Enrichment, and ed2go.
    Career Pathways is a phrase that one will hear often while attending Adult Education these days. Specifically, Career Pathways focuses on strengthening connections between the adult students’ current classes and their postsecondary education plans — a program aimed at helping all adult learners acquire a credential that will lead to maximum-value employment. Adult education Career Pathways combines classroom instruction, workforce training, online learning, and other services to help adults improve their basic skills for future success in school and in a career.
    After completing the up-front intake and assessment phases, students discuss short and long-term goals with the Adult Education staff. These discussions, and some self-exploration, lead to designing a Career Pathways “map” showing the steps leading from where one is now to where they would like to be in the future. The map highlights key steps and the skills required to obtain ones goals. The key components of a Career Pathway map usually include the following: potential jobs in the pathway industry, additional required education and training, salary information, potential partners/support services, and how one Career Pathways map may link to other career maps.
    To assist students in their pathway, Adult Educations and its partners offer workshops revolving around career and job searches, interviewing and resume writing, customer service and soft skills enhancement, health and nutrition education, and a brand new financial literacy component. Adult Education also offers a WorkReady course, which will be discussed in a future article.  The focus of Adult Education is to not only to assist with meeting the near-term goal of improving basic skills, completing high school, or earning the GED, but to get one thinking about the future on the path of a chosen career field. 
    Next week, read about the WorkReady program and how it assists students with future goals and making connections to potential area employers.
    Pre-registration sessions (about three hours long) for GED, college, and other courses are scheduled for Aug. 14-16 (mornings) and Aug. 15 in the evening. There is no charge for GED/High School completion services, and all other classes are supported by a combination of student fees, local, state, federal, and agency funding.  For more information and to make an appointment, call 521-3100 x5, go to www.sad29.maineadulted.org, email befarrar@msln.net or otsmith@msln.net, or search Houlton Hodgdon Adult and Community Education Program on Facebook.
    The next resume writing workshop will be held on Wednesday, Aug. 22. Pre-registration is required. Please call 521-3100 x5, to register.
    Adult Education’s Mission/Vision Statement: “We recognize that education is a lifelong learning process designed to assist adults in their efforts to manage a constantly changing environment. To that end, our program is responsive to the needs of the adult population of Southern Aroostook County, preparing them for lifelong learning, responsible citizenship, and productive employment.”