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Photo by Reed Hutchinson UCLA
Photographic Services
UCLA Extension instructor Michael Bronstein goes over an
English lesson with employees Zhao Yun “Lisa”
Zeng (center) and Paula Padilla during a class at the Facilities
Management building. |
Extension english classes
Staff become students in workplace
by Julie jaskol
ucla today
This fall, UCLA groundskeeper Ismael Martinez celebrated a “first”
— he took his oldest daughter to UC Santa Cruz to begin her
freshman year. She is the first member of his family to go to college.
But that isn’t the only educational milestone he’s
celebrating. For the first time, Martinez is able to help his other
daughters with their grade school homework. “And they help
me with mine, too,” he added.
Martinez has been taking UCLA Extension English classes at the
end of his workday. He is one of nearly 40 Facilities Management
employees who file into a training room in the Facilities Management
building twice a week to improve their written and spoken English.
The classes help solve a problem that has concerned E.J. Kirby,
director of campus maintenance, since he became a maintenance manager
more than 20 years ago.
“I discovered that a great deal of my staff had trouble reading
and writing, both in English and their native language,” he
said. “I realized some of them could sign their time cards,
and that was it.”
So Kirby set up an English class, but nobody attended. He let the
matter drop. Over the last two decades, however, the issue became
more urgent. “It really affects people’s understanding
of work rules, directions, even ‘Hey, you’re doing a
good job,’ ” Kirby said.
This time, he asked Extension to provide the classes. “They
had a whole program already set up, and we didn’t have to
re-invent the wheel,” he said. This time, the classes are
a hit. “The employees are enjoying it. They get a lot out
of it. The teachers are great.”
Extension has been teaching on-site English classes in a variety
of settings, from manufacturing to pharmaceutical plants to some
of Los Angeles’ most exclusive hotels and restaurants.
The convenience of a work-site class is a huge draw. “Students
are always telling us they’ve wanted to improve their English
for years, but they have small children or difficult work schedules,
or they have to take too many buses to get to class,” explained
Barbara Franceschini, who coordinates Extension’s workplace
English program. “Having class right there at work removes
those barriers.”
Employers provide English classes out of enlightened self-interest,
said William Gaskill, director of Extension’s American Language
Center. “It helps their bottom line by improving productivity
and customer service,” he said, “but it also is a significant
benefit that goes far beyond the workplace — into schools
and the community.”
For Martinez, the benefits are clear every time he works with his
children on homework or meets their teachers.
“It gives me more confidence in myself,” he said. “I
can speak English, but my spelling and writing isn’t so good,
and I know that.”
Kirby estimates that about 150 of his employees — more than
a quarter of his maintenance staff — want to take the class.
He’s already requested a second session from Extension. Eventually
he hopes to give everyone an opportunity to attend.
“I can already see the difference in my staff,” Kirby
said. “They seem freer, easier, and I can joke with them.
I want to see everyone comfortable reading and writing standard
English relative to their workplace. With those skills, they can
start to move up.”
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