Learning Together: Chapter VI - Training for Community Leadership & Adult Education

Changes in the workplace and the economy have placed renewed emphasis on training and retraining. In Israel, the situation has been exacerbated by the sudden influx of hundreds of thousands of new immigrants, some of whom are highly qualified but unable to find jobs in their former professions, and others who left a relatively undeveloped society and are unprepared for the positions available in Israel.

ORT-Israel has a wide variety of adult education programs, with an emphasis on vocational training. Several of these have been specially designed to meet the needs of new immigrants, in particular those from Ethiopia.

The training of persons to assume leadership in community development efforts is often the key to whether or not such endeavors will succeed. The Golda Meir Carmel International Training Center has had more than three decades of experience in providing such leadership training to women around the world. Leadership training for community development in America's inner cities and economically disadvantaged areas is a need on which the Golda Meir Center's experience could shed considerable light.

Americans are constantly reading about the number of adults who have inadequate schooling and insufficient basic education. The TEHILA project represents an approach to adult basic education that could have meaning for American educators.

ORT Career Adult Education Systems

Contact:

Chaim Ben-Ami
Director General, ORT Israel
39 Sderot David Hamelech
P.O. Box 16087
Tel Aviv 61160, Israel
Tel. (03) 520 3222, Fax. (03) 523 4827

Objectives:

To immprove workers' professional skills.

To provide new professional skills to workers for intra-organizational mobility.

To provide a trade with high market demand for unskilled workers.

Target Population:

Adults who have to retrain professionally or participate in refresher courses to upgrade their skills, and business organizations that require the acquisition of new skills by their employees.

Program and Activities:

The program is guided by two concepts: (l) The increased pace of technological development and dynamic economic and social changes in Israel and throughout the world are resulting in increased mobility among employees and frequent changes in areas of employment, and (2) These changes create a need for flexibility in training methods and real-time response.

ORT's Training Creation Process consists of three components:

(1) Incoming Resources: Surveys and study of needs, development of new study topics, formulation of curricula, devising learning aids and qualifying teachers and lecturers.

(2) Creation Process: Implementation of the study process, inspection of pedagogical and administrative implementation, evaluation and follow-up.

(3) Output: Better chances of employment, enhancement of knowledge and skills in various vocational fields, and increased productivity.

The "Activity Sections" included: Computers and Information Systems, Accounting and Financial Management, Institute of Design, Technology and Automation, Marketing Management and Sales, Transportation, ORT-IDEA (the International Institute for Executive Assistants) and Further Education. The latter included courses preparing youth and adults for external matriculation examinations, completion of 10-year education, tutoring in English and Mathematics, preparation for Psychometric examinations and spoken English.

Courses and programs are provided in ORT facilities in five regions throughout Israel — Haifa and the Northern Region, Netanya and the Sharon Region, Tel Aviv and the Central Region, the Southern Region and the Jerusalem Region. In addition, courses are provided in the Israel Pollak ORT College of Business Administration and Marketing.

Adult Education Programs are also provided for special target groups including: members of the Armed Forces and Veterans, Police, Rehabilitated Prisoners, Rehabilitated Drug Addicts, Populations of Newly Established Towns, New Immigrants and High School Students.

In-house courses and seminars are provided for industry and the public and business sectors. The latter include banks and insurance companies, private firms and enterprises, local and government authorities and institutions of higher education.

During 1993-1994, ORT Career Adult Education Systems had a student enrollment of 14,500 in 750 courses for which there was a total of 210,000 teaching hours. Approximately 58 percent of the custom-designed courses are for professional training, retraining and updating for the unemployed — both long-time residents and new immigrants — and the remaining 42 percent are custom-designed for industry and the business sector.

Training Programs for New
Olim (Immigrants) from Ethiopia

Contact:

Chaim Ben-Ami
Director General, ORT Israel
39 Sderot David Hamelech
P.O. Box 16087
Tel Aviv 61160, Israel
Tel. (02) 520 3222, Fax. (02) 523 4827

Objective:

To provide vocational training for immigrants from Ethiopia.

Target Population:

Mostly men ages 20 and over.

Program and Activities:

During the past 10 years, more than 75,000 new immigrants have come to Israel from Ethiopia, with many presenting special educational and absorption problems. Ethiopian children adapt quickly and learn rapidly, but adults have considerable difficulty adjusting due to a "culture shock."

ORT Israel has three adult training centers where newcomers learn a marketable skill according to the level they can achieve. Skills range from electricity (highest level) to metal work (middle level) and carpentry (lower level). ORT has designed an evaluation test to ascertain the potential of the student. Trainees are then placed with peer groups, receive a three-month intensive course in Hebrew, as well as lessons in "how to learn" and then go on to workshop training. Trainees seem to learn best with a hands-on approach. At the end of a nine-month training program, students are helped to get jobs at local factories and businesses. These programs are not confined to job training — they involve integrating the Ethiopian olim into Israeli life and cover daily life experiences (e.g., using a bank, living in an urban apartment, managing a budget, paying bills). Female trainees learn garment making and child care and their rights as women in Israeli society.

MASHAV — The Golda Meir Mount
Carmel International Training Center

Contact:

Fannette Modek
Director
12 David Pinsky Street
P.O. Box 6111
Haifa 31060, Israel
Tel. (04) 383500/375904, Fax. (04) 375013

Objective:

To foster cooperation with developing countries through training courses, study workshops and seminars intended mainly for women.

To enhance knowledge, competence and skills to increasing the involvement and contribution of women to the development process.

Target Population:

Participants include middle-level professional workers, supervisors and planners who attend study programs with the expectation that, on their return to their countries, they will motivate their communities to find solutions to their own problems, train field workers and plan and organize new projects.

Program and Activities:

The Center functions within the framework of "MASHAV" — Israel's program for international cooperation. It maintains relations with a number of governmental and non-governmental aid agencies, UN specialized agencies and international women's organizations.

In each training program there are from 25 to 30 women and men between the ages of 30 to 50 from 10 to 15 countries. The courses are conducted concurrently in two languages — usually English and Spanish or English and French — although a good command of written and spoken English is essential. The study program consists of lectures, group discussions, practical exercises and observation visits that provide the participants with an opportunity to observe how Israel attempts to solve its social and technical problems. Visits to observe economic, educational and social services take place in urban and rural areas, in kibbutzim and moshavim and in development villages, giving participants examples of how concepts and principles discussed in class are applied to real situations.

Courses and seminars are conducted in the areas of:

Rural Community Development

Organization of Income-Generating Projects

Community Development and Organization of Cooperatives

Early Childhood Education — the child, the family and the community

Programs for Youth

Women's Leadership in Community Development

Training and Supervision in Community Development

The MCTC staff, in collaboration with lecturers from universities and specialists from public services, enterprises and cooperatives, develop the subjects in classroom discussions and make extensive use of case material presented by participants from their own work experience. The Center's specialized library houses more than 10,000 volumes in English, Spanish and French.

Some recent courses illustrate the nature of the Center's program:

— Course on Management of Family and Community Services in which participants examined new concepts and theories for staff management; expanded essential managerial and organizational abilities; examined and experienced various techniques for designing training programs at various staff levels; analyzed policies, management styles and programs of social welfare services and exchanged information about welfare organizations in the participants' countries.

— Organization and Management of Income-Generating Projects in which participants examined and analyzed theoretical and practical aspects underlying the functioning of income-generating projects; underwent a hands-on experience in organizing and managing small-scale enterprises; became aware of criteria basic to the identification of feasible projects using local resources; and analyzed and explained the processes involved in establishing small community-based enterprises.

— Workshop on Management of Voluntary Organizations in which participants examined new concepts and theories in management of volunteer staff; analyzed policies and programs for social welfare as well as community services; examined the role of non-governmental organizations as advocates of social change and exchanged information and experiences about volunteer organizations in their own countries.

Since its establishment in 1961, more than 6,000 participants from 120 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean have attended courses, workshops and seminars sponsored by the training center.

The TEHILA Project

Contact:

Leora Laufert
Adult Education Department
Ministry of Education and Culture
29A Keren Hayesod Street
Jerusalem 91911, Israel
Tel. (02) 246444

Objective:

To provide an elementary education for adult students;

To teach new learning habits;

To improve the self-image of participants and create self-confidence in their ability to learn and to advance;

To broaden the participants' horizons beyond their narrow interests and to introduce them to various subjects related to life in modern society;

To develop rational thinking;

To improve oral and written expression and to promote the habit of reading;

To encourage a sense of identification with Jewish and Zionist values and the cultural heritage of the many ethnic groups in Israel;

To strengthen the educational ties between parents and children;

To foster a broader understanding of the government and social structure of Israel by presenting a historical and social perspective;

To promote an understanding of current events and Israeli history by teaching about various historical eras and the history of the Jewish settlement in Israel; and

To broaden the participants' knowledge about the world in which they live.

Target Population:

Adults who have had an inadequate basic education, usually fewer than seven years.

Program and Activities:

Initiated in 1976, TEHILA was the Ministry Adult Education Division's response to the large number of adults with insufficient basic education — 12 percent of the population over age 14 had only 0-4 years of schooling and another 25 percent only 5-7 years of schooling. The initial mission was two-fold: To integrate large populations into the circle of learning in a variety of new educational frameworks and to equip these frameworks with new subject matter and methodology, specially tailored to the needs of the adult student.

The first seminars — for port workers — were instituted in November 1976. Three-day courses were held at Hebrew University for groups of 30-40 workers aimed at social integration through an educational experience, improving the self-image and sparking intellectual curiosity to increase their motivation to continue their studies. Two months later, seminars were organized for mothers who had had little schooling.

Students spend between four to six years studying at the TEHILA centers. The educational framework consists of three levels: (1) Acquisition of basic skills; (2) mastery of basic concepts in various subjects and development of thought processes and skills and (3) gaining greater depth and breadth and introduction to additional subjects.

The instructional staff includes teachers who receive 56 classroom hours of special training, including study of the characteristics and traits of the adult student; psychology of the adult student; teaching methods in adult education; orientation to the TEHILA curriculum and educational materials; development of various teaching aids; familiarization with enrichment programs and the establishment of a "learning community" at a local center. In-service training is provided throughout the year.

A variety of means are used to recruit students, including setting up a registration stand in a shopping center, a health clinic or the workplace; going from door to door in neighborhoods where potential students reside; mailing notices to people whose addresses were supplied by schools and community workers; hanging posters on billboards; distributing circulars in mailboxes; conducting a recruitment campaign during summer programs for mothers of large families and projects organized by women's organizations; taking advantage of chance encounters on street corners and bus stops and having students recruit students.

Recruitment is difficult because many adults are ashamed to admit having little formal education, it is difficult to get adults to change their habits and suddenly to leave their houses a few hours per week and husbands sometimes oppose their wives leaving the house to study. Centers that conducted vigorous enrollment campaigns attracted 300-400 students.