BBCC showcases importance of basic skills
BBCC showcases importance of basic skills
College marks Adult Literacy Week by sharing opportunities available
MOSES LAKE — The importance of basic education took the spotlight Friday morning at Genie Industries.
The company was the site for a Big Bend Community College literacy event, held to mark Gov. Christine Gregoire's declaration of Adult Literary Week, Oct. 31 through Nov. 4.
"She understands that there is a crisis looming, there is a whole population out there who needs the kinds of basic skills that we can provide," said Sandy Cheek, director of adult basic skills at BBCC. "We need the support from the community and from the industry, and this was an opportunity to recognize the kind of support that we have locally for the basic skills programs we provide."
Cheek introduced those in attendance for the hour-long event to Yuriy Agoshkov and Viktor Dubinets, two people who came to America without the ability to read or speak English.
Cheek said both workers tested as "unable" in small assessments given to students when they come in for language skills. If they are unable to answer five basic questions, she explained, they are considered "unable" and not subjected to further testing.
"When I talk about these basic questions, I mean, 'What is your name? How long have you been in the United States? Did you work in your native country? What did you do? Why do you want to learn English?'" she said. "I'm saying that because I want you to understand the kind of progress that can happen when we work together and we target what we want to do for these folks."
Agoshkov and Dubinets went into a customized job skills training program at BBCC, and began working at Genie, ultimately being hired as permanent workers.
Genie manager Mark Albright talked about Agoshkov and Dubinets' contributions to the company in their positions on the large boom assembly line and the small boom assembly line, respectively. Both work in a number of different areas of cross-training throughout their lines.
"Both Yuriy and Viktor have turned out to be very valuable and productive team members here at Genie," he said. "Detail-oriented, dependable, always a pleasure to work with out there."
Albright said that Genie welcomes the opportunity to work with local educators to help set standards for the type of skills the company needs. With products becoming more complex and customer demands for quality increasing, so increases the need for those skills, Albright noted.
"It's a partnership that has to go on, so that we make sure that the folks coming through these programs are ready to come to work in industries such as ours," he said. "Skills such as reading, writing, basic math and communications are really key to being a successful and productive part of our team."
Mike Bolander, director of administrative services at Columbia Colstor, noted his company runs its own training center with a warehouse simulation area. The company has two full-time instructors, but relies on the college and other agencies to fill in where they can't.
The company found that people with basic skills have increased abilities to learn in the programs Columbia Colstor provides, he said, both in communication and in technology.
As an example, Bolander brought a piece of equipment he called a "ray gun," which the cold storage company will issue next year to read bar codes with a laser and eventually allow identification per case of goods. The machinery also has a wireless connection to the Internet, meaning customers, be they in Othello or in Orlando, Fla., will be able to communicate with the warehouse.
"For people that have had a great time and a great career, but never learned how to program their VCR, when we start handing these things out, they're going to wish every day was Take Your Kid to Work Day," Bolander said, to much laughter from the audience. "It's going to require a lot of training to make this happen, and basic skills are what make it all possible."
BBCC vice president Ken Turner, Basic American Foods human resources assistant Cindy Alporque and SkillSource training coordinator Luis Ochoa also addressed the audience.
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