“Bridge” programs that help adult students acquire the skills necessary to succeed in postsecondary education are gaining momentum and could play a vital role in fulfilling the nation’s degree-completion agenda, according to the results of a new study by the Workforce Strategy Center.
The study, called BridgeConnect, surveyed 515 programs in 345 communities across the nation that are using the concept as part of job-training efforts.
The intent of the survey, which was commissioned by the Joyce Foundation and conducted by the Workforce Strategy Center, was to take a composite look at the nation’s bridge programs.
There is no clearinghouse that keeps track of such efforts, which have many different sources of funds, standards, target populations, goals, and outcomes. A clearer picture could help policy makers grasp the diverse work that bridge programs accomplish, which could lead to a scaling-up of programs and even the formation of national standards, said the authors of a report on the survey. The report, “Building a Higher Skilled Workforce,” will be posted on the Web site of the Workforce Strategy Center.
“While there has been anecdotal evidence before now, this is the first real proof that a sea change is taking place across the country in this kind of education,” said Julian L. Alssid, the center’s executive director.
Among the survey’s findings:
- Seventy-five percent of bridge programs prepare people for job training in allied health fields. Other industries served include administrative/office technologies, the construction trades, the energy sector, information technology, and manufacturing.
- Fifty-seven percent of adults in bridge programs possess educational skills below the 10th-grade level, with 19 percent having skills below the sixth-grade level.
- Sixty-seven percent of survey respondents said people who complete their programs are likely to enroll in further education or training within six months.
- Sixty percent of respondents report that they structure their programs in a “learning by doing” format.
By 2018, the report said, two-thirds of the jobs in the American economy will require a postsecondary credential. At the same time, says the National Commission on Adult Literacy, 80 million to 90 million adult workers have low basic skills and are not prepared for those jobs because they lack a high-school degree or its equivalent.
Low-skilled adults represent a huge potential reservoir of workers to meet the future work-force needs of employers, Mr. Alssid said.
The report offered several recommendations to strengthen bridge programs, including forming a policy commission to review policy and practice at the federal, state, and local levels, and establishing national bridge-program standards.
