Online advancements
At-home learning program helps low-income parents gain
needed skills
By Barbara Rose | Tribune staff reporter
Jacqueline King's 8-year-old daughter, Kayla, peers
over her mother's shoulder while she powers up a
laptop computer to study.
"Can I watch?" Kayla asks.
King, a divorced single mom, hasn't been back to
school since she left during her first semester of
community college in 1994 to work full time. The jobs
that awaited her -- data-entry clerk, retail sales
clerk, fast-food server -- paid the bills, but there
was too little time and money left over to attend
classes while caring for her four sons, now grown.
Today, her dream of getting educated for better-paying
jobs seems within reach. She is one of 10 participants
in a Chicago-area pilot program that provides
low-income working parents with laptops, printers,
career assessments, online courses and 12 months of
Internet access.
"I would like to get where we don't have to struggle
from paycheck to paycheck," said King, 45, an Oak Park
resident who works as a school crossing guard.
"I'd like to save for Kayla's college. I'd like to be
productive and train her as well so she can understand
the importance of education."
The program will be closely watched by workforce
development advocates who view online learning as a
promising strategy to help low-income parents break
out of dead-end jobs. Federal funding for workforce
training has dropped precipitously since 2000, even
though jobs require more technical skills, studies
indicate. Sixty percent of sales-related jobs in the
fast-growing service sector, for example, require
skills beyond those of a high school graduate.
"We know that low-wage workers need education and
training to move up," said Mary Gatta, director of
Workforce Policy and Research at Rutgers University's
Center for Women and Work. "But with family demands,
irregular work schedules and transportation issues,
doing it at home may be the only way they can
do it."
The Chicago-area program is modeled after a 2002 pilot
program in New Jersey, since adopted statewide, where
graduates averaged a 14 percent annual wage
increase after one year. In Texas, where a similar
program is used with mothers receiving public
assistance, participants were three times more likely
to be employed, and they earned an average $4,400 more
annually than mothers enrolled in other programs.
In Illinois, "the goal is to branch this into a much
bigger program," said Grace Jenkins, president and
chief executive of National Able Network Inc.,
a non-profit employment and training agency. "The
outcomes will be shared with state government funding
agencies for the purpose of getting their backing
and support for a statewide program, potentially with
federal funds."
National Able launched the pilot in September with
$100,000 from the Searle Funds at the Chicago
Community Trust and $10,000 from a private family
foundation.
Nine single mothers and one single father were picked
from about 50 applicants.
"Almost everyone we talked with had already tried to
go to school," said Cheryl Lawrence, National Able's
vice president of training and career resources.
"Almost all had debt. Money and time were major
factors."
Each agreed to devote at least 10 hours weekly to
online courses and attend monthly group meetings. Each
was assigned a curriculum, ranging from basic
office skills to project management and beginning
Microsoft programming. Upon completion, they receive
certificates outlining their competencies, and they
get to keep their laptops.On a recent Saturday
morning, an instructor showed them how to use their
new computers.
"Don't be alarmed if the screen goes black," said
David Buchholz, program manager with Dallas-based
Business Access LLC, a workforce development firm that
provides the learning systems and round-the-clock
technical support. "They're preprogrammed to go to
sleep at a certain time."
"Like me," King quipped.
She bought her first computer in 2005 to e-mail one of
her sons who was stationed in Iraq.
"Kayla was more computer literate than I was," she
said.
A graduate of John Marshall Metro High School, she has
worked for Target, McDonald's, Taco Bell, several
banks and a temporary staffing agency. But when
she applied for a job as a 911 operator, she was told
she needed faster typing skills, and she was turned
down for two office jobs because she lacked Microsoft
skills.
"This opportunity is really good for me," she said.
Felicia Tucker, 33, got caught in traffic on a recent
weeknight and arrived home late from work to her two
school-age children. She had spent the day preparing
payroll for home-care aides in a Catholic Charities
program for seniors.
"It's really hectic," said Tucker, a resident of
Markham, as her children clamored for attention.
Despite her schedule, she tries to complete two online
classes a day.
Her online assessment recommended she pursue a
curriculum in office skills, but she hopes to complete
a module in project management as well.
"I was kind of thinking I'd like to go into
social-services property management [for] independent
senior living," she said. "I like talking to seniors.
It's about their bills, but sometimes they just need
someone to talk to."
Karen Owens, 47, an administrative assistant at a
community health clinic, lives with her three children
in Chicago's ABLA Homes, a public housing complex
where she grew up.
She has done a variety of office and social service
work. For a time, she was a reporter for Residents'
Journal, published by We the People Media for
residents
of public housing.
Her online assessment recommended she pursue project
management.
"I was shocked. Wow, a leader? I don't have a problem
working with people, but I normally don't consider
myself a leader," she said.
Yet in the next breath she talks about wanting to
learn "budgeting, everything there is to know about
managing a community health center," so perhaps she
can manage a center. She hopes to finish her online
course work by Jan. 1, though graduation is not until
June.
"I want to start the new year off right," she said.
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