Career Pathways Instructional Materials Library
Adults seeking jobs and those currently employed are increasingly encouraged to update and expand skills that will improve their potential for success in the workplace. This Library includes materials to help educators develop and implement work-based education programs and career pathways for adult learners in their Adult Basic Education and General Educational Development programs. Materials are categorized using the U.S. Department of Education’s 16 career clusters or occupational categories that define the skills and knowledge needed to work in particular industries, and are listed by title with a short abstract and link to the resource.
Professionals in state adult education departments and at the National Adult Education Professional Development Consortium (NAEPDC) submitted the materials included in this Library. The LINCS Workforce Competitiveness Collection staff will update entries periodically. LINCS provides online information and communication networks for adult and family literacy practitioners. Offerings include Discussion Lists, Regional Resource Centers, the Collections, and training opportunities.
To contribute materials for consideration for inclusion in the Career Pathways Instructional Materials Library, please submit a URL and brief abstract to the NAEPDC or the LINCS Workforce Competitiveness Resource Collection with the words "career pathways resource" in the subject line.
The Career Pathways Instructional Materials Library includes some resources from the LINCS Workforce Competitiveness Resource Collection. Items from the LINCS Collections in the Career Pathways Library are noted with an asterisk (
). Resources from the LINCS Collection have undergone the Institute’s rigorous external review process and are considered research-based and of high quality. All other entries have not been externally reviewed. LINCS does not control and cannot guarantee the relevance, timeliness, or accuracy of the materials other agencies or organizations have provided, nor does LINCS endorse other agencies or organizations, their views, products, or services.
Industry Specific Basic Skills Instruction
Industry: architecture & construction
Topic: construction
Basic Skills and Communication for Construction Workers: Guidelines and Training Materials 
This UK resource, developed by Basic Skills for Work, is a curriculum that focuses on the important social and communication skills particularly required for construction workers.
Industry: architecture & construction
Topic: construction
Building Basics: ESOL Toolkit for General Construction, Landscaping, Painting, and Plumbing
This curriculum, developed by the Virginia Adult Learning Center, is for English language learners with NRS Beginning Low Beginning, and High Beginning. There are four topics with four of five lessons under each topic. Each lesson has three components: Facilitator Guide, Facilitator Materials, and Student Handouts. Activities are designed for different proficiency levels.
Industry: architecture & construction
Topic: construction (Green Energy)
Building Effective Green Energy Programs in Community Colleges
This guide, based in a study by the Workforce Strategy Center, offers information on developing a community college bridge, highlighting Green Energy jobs, program for low-level literate adults.
Industry: human services
Topic: custodial
Bridging the Employment Gap: Janitorial
The Janitorial manual, developed by the Simcoe Muskoka Literacy Network & Human Resources Social Services Canada, will help beginning level individuals who may have the opportunity to work in any workplace performing cleaning tasks. It includes five main units: Safety, Understanding Hazardous Product Labels, Understanding Signs, Mopping Following a Pattern, Garbage: Bags & Recycling.
Industry: human services
Topic: custodial
English in the Workplace for School Custodians
This Manual and Curriculum Guide, developed by the Fairfax County Public Schools, is designed for non-native English speakers. The resource provides guidance on setting up vocational English as a second language (VESL) program, curriculum, and lesson plans.
Industry: health science
Topic: health care
How to Build Bridge Programs that Fit into a Career Pathway: A Step-by-Step Guide Based on the Carreras en Salud Program in Chicago
This guide, developed by the Instituto del Progreso Latino and other partners, highlights how to develop a career-based bridge program. It draws on the specific example of health careers. This guide can inform program development for ESL and ABE students.
Industry: health science
Topic: health care
Project Care
Project Care, developed by the World Education, is a website for high intermediate to advanced English language learners with four lessons (including activities, vocabulary practice, and evaluation) about caring for others while improving their communication with medical personnel. The four topic areas are Depression, Alzheimer’s Disease, Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, and Death and Dying. The website provides audio and video for listening practice, vocabulary development, project ideas and links to related-health information. There is an accompanying book. There are also plenty of free activities available to learners.
Industry: hospitality & tourism
Topic: hospitality
Hotel T.E.A.C.H. Project Curriculum
This curriculum, developed by the Center for Immigrant Education and Training at LaGuardia Community College, addresses the needs of immigrant adults employed in back of the house jobs in hotels. It focuses on teaching English, skills for the hospitality industry, career counseling, soft skills, skill transfer, and technology skills. There are eight units, complete with lesson plans, teacher guidance, activities and extension activities.
Industry: manufacturing
Topic: OSHA regulations
Workplace Health and Safety ESOL Curriculum
This curriculum, developed by the Massachusetts Worker Education Roundtable, contains eleven lessons teaching health and safety principles and how to address these issues in a workplace setting.
Industry: multiple
Topic: multiple – e.g., childcare, cleaning, hairdressing, social work
Embedded Learning Portal (Curriculum Sample Reviewed: Production Process Module 2)
The Embedded Learning Portal, developed by the UK Department for Education and Schools (DFES), offers access to a variety of work-related basic skills curricula that are embedded in a functional context of job areas in specific industry clusters.
Industry: multiple
Topic: multiple – e.g., hairdressing, hospitality, retail, travel, wood occupations
Key Skills in Vocational Areas
This UK website, developed by the UK NGFL, contains learning materials in a number of vocational areas. There are resources for hairdressers, wood occupations, retail, travel and hospitality.
Industry: multiple
Topic: multiple – e.g., electrical trades and occupations, industrial trades, logistics
Steps to Employment
This website, developed by Language Curriculum Resources Training (LCRT) Consulting (Canada), offers series of workshop manuals that are used to orient new immigrants (basic proficiency in English) to their new setting and skills required for different industries. Each topic specific curriculum includes materials for 25 hours of orientation, and 25 hours of occupation-specific language training. Topics cover a host of industries including trade, telecommunications, food services, home health care, etc.
Work Readiness
Industry: multiple
Topic: Career Pathways and Adult Basic Education
ABE Career Connections: A Manual for Integrating Adult Basic Education into Career Pathways
To further the efforts to connecting Adult Basic Education (ABE) with postsecondary career pathways, the
U.S. Department of Education, Office of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE) funded the Adult Basic Education Career Connections (ABECC) project in 2006-2010. Participating sites developed and implemented work plans to improve adults’ basic skills to prepare them to enter career pathways. This manual provides an overview of career pathways and describes efforts to align basic skills training and partnership efforts with local career pathways. This manual is organized into sections describing approaches to implementing pathways components, examples from participating sites, challenges, resources that sites received, lessons learned, and possible implications for policy and practice.
Industry: multiple
Topic: Career Pathways and Adult Basic Education
The Breaking Through Practice Guide
Developed by the Jobs for the Future (JFF) this resource guides practioners in developing "high leverage strategies" with low-level literacy adults. Earlier research posed particular barriers for low-income, low-literacy level students; this guide identifies four key strategies that support these students in being successful in a postsecondary educational (occupational or technical) setting. Concrete examples of how these strategies are put in to place are offered. A contextualization toolkit and other materials are included.
Industry: multiple
Topic: Bridge Program development
Bridges to Careers for Low-Skilled Adults: A Program Development Guide
This resource, developed by Women Employed with Chicago Jobs Council and University of Illinois (UIC) Great Cities Institute, guides educators, administrators, and curriculum developers in creating a bridge program for adults needing to develop skills in order to enter the work force.
Industry: hospitality & tourism
Topic: hospitality
GED Career Bridge to Hospitality Curriculum (All sections)
This curriculum resource, developed by Virginia Adult Learning Resource Center, prepares students (ASE Low-NRS Educational Functioning Level 5 and ASE High NRS Educational Functioning Level 6) for the GED credential while providing information, skill instruction, and practice within a hospitality career context and pathway model. Included are several sections to integrate GED studies with the hospitality industry: 1) GED reading, writing, math, and social studies (instructor will need to contextualize examples); 2) career awareness; 3) career information (skills and knowledge); 4) certification, credentials, licensing, education, specializations; 5) job earnings and opportunities; 6) links to additional sites for practice; 7) numerous glossaries from various hospitality industries; and 8) crosswalks to Workplace Essential Skills and commercial GED materials for additional instruction and practice. A teacher’s guide is included.
Industry: multiple
Topic: customer service & workplace literacy program development
ESOL Customer Service Training Curriculum
This curriculum was developed by MontgomeryWorks in partnership with the Maryland Department of Education and Montgomery College. It is designed for students who are both language learners and job seekers. The curriculum incorporates customer service, job readiness, and ESOL with cultural competencies. The program was developed and field tested on students at the Low Intermediate and High Intermediate skill level. The package includes both Teacher Guide and Student Book covering seven units with lessons and activities that can be readily accessed and implemented in the classroom.
Industry: multiple
Topic: workplace literacy program development
Tennessee ESOL in the Workplace
This is a training manual, developed by the University of Tennessee Center for Literacy Studies, Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development Office of Adult Education, for instructors and supervisors. The manual was developed for English Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) supervisors and instructors to prepare them to launch successful workplace initiatives in business and industry. Major topics include: knowing and presenting your adult education program to business and industry, knowing your community's needs and understanding the workplace, designing a plan to deliver and sustain educational services to the workforce, and knowing your results by evaluating and monitoring progress. Materials for the ESOL learners are not included.
Industry: multiple
Topic: work contextualized ESL instruction
Vocational English as a Second Language: Courses A&B Curriculum Guide
This curriculum, developed by the Bridge to Advanced Technological Education and Employment Project, University of Illinois at Chicago, is composed of two courses (A and B) that each run for 14 weeks, 12 hours per week and offers structured lesson plans. Career paths and lifelong learning are stressed, as are grammar, writing, and speaking skills, in the context of work and careers. Both A and B courses in this guide rely on interactive writing techniques with the instructor and in student pairs. Many of the activities are project-based and require active teaching and learning techniques such as role-plays. The activities represent a broad variety of scenarios and situations that are typically encountered by adults on the job or with goals for good jobs and opportunities for advancement.
Please note: We do not control and cannot guarantee the relevance, timeliness, or accuracy of the materials provided by other agencies or organizations via links off-site, nor do we endorse other agencies or organizations, their views, products or services.
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