Low-Wage Worker Advancement Strategy

The State of Michigan's Low-Wage Worker Advancement Strategy Committee of the Council for Labor & Economic Growth (CLEG) has been working through its Adult Learning Work Group to examine and provide recommendations for transformation of Michigan's approach to basic skills development to better meet the needs of adult learners, employers, and the state in an ever-changing economy.

The Adult Learning Work Group includes adult learning practitioners from around the state, representing community colleges, literacy councils, adult basic education programs, Michigan Works! Agencies, community-based organizations and four state departments.  Its aim is to recommend comprehensive policy reforms which will substantially re-imagine and re-design the adult learning infrastructure in Michigan.

The Work Group has gathered data about the current strategies and resources devoted to basic skill development; researched the current and projected need; learned about promising practices for system redesign; and engaged a full range of stakeholders in conversations about improving adult learning opportunties and supporting Michigan's adult learners, including more than 200 attendees at seven regional forums around the state.

The Work Group deliberately has used the term "adult learning" to describe its area of focus.  The scale of need for basic skills development is tremendous; it goes well beyond the scope and capacity of any individual program or funding silo.

The feedback received during the regional forums was incredibly energizing, and revealed widespread understanding by practitioners that Michigan learners live in a very different economy and context than when programs were originally created.  The Work Group is excited by the innovation already seen in pockets around the state, and by the willingness of many dedicated educators to come together in creating diverse new solutions that better fit the needs we face today and tomorrow.  Currently, the Work Group is working through the rest of 2008 to frame more detailed action strategies that can be used to guide state funding and policy for 2009 and beyond.