Thanks to an exciting partnership between World Education and Boston’s Seaport Hotel and World Trade Center, 22 Seaport team members have begun taking ESOL classes through a new workplace education program called English for Seaport Team Members. The classes are the result of the collaborative workplace planning process between World Education and the Seaport Hotel and World Trade Center which resulted in funding through a Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (ESE) workplace education grant. The team members/students attend one of two levels of classes twice a week on paid release time provided by the Seaport Hotel and World Trade Center. They will improve their English skills in contextualized classes while engaging in workplace-related topics such as understanding co-workers and supervisors and writing business emails. Working closely with World Education Coordinator Kathleen O’Connell, Seaport students, managers, and supervisors provide input into curriculum so that instruction directly connects to workplace needs and builds team member’s capacity to more effectively do their jobs and grow their careers, while also contributing to the quality of service provided to Seaport guests.
The World Education team working on this project continues to be impressed by the level of commitment and support that the Seaport management team has invested into this project and their team members. We are gratified that our collective efforts have led to an ESE grant, which will allow us to provide classes for team members for up to two and a half years.
Kathleen O’Connell is the Workplace Education Coordinator and Instructor at World Education, Inc.
