Operation Bootstrap evolving with adult education needs

LYNN – Adult education used to mean obtaining a high school equivalency certificate or completing an English as a second language class and getting a pat on the back, but Operation Bootstrap Executive Director Edward Tirrell said all that has changed. With it so has Bootstrap’s mission.”You’ve got to have post-secondary education or training ? to get jobs where you can earn a living wage,” said Tirrell. “Over the last two years we started the career pathways program, we added college readiness this year and next year we’re gearing up to do even more.”Located on the second floor of the JB Blood Building on Wheeler Street, Bootstrap is a sprawling space that does offer high school equivalency and English as a second language courses, but it also offers work readiness, college readiness, technology training and career advisers and coordinators.Classes are full day and night, and Tirrell said he has a waiting list of 1,500 who want to enroll.”We actually stopped taking names last September because it’s two years before some of these people will get in,” he said.Once they do get in, the first thing they learn is that adult education is a process, not a quick fix to a better life.Tirrell said students generally come in with one of two sets of expectations. They either believe they are stuck and will never go to college and will only ever work a minimum wage job or they believe all they need is a high school equivalency and they can be a nurse.Tirrell said career advisors work with students to figure out what exactly they want and what they have to do to achieve their goal.Beginning in September Bootstrap will also offer a largely unheard of Level 4 ESL class. Tirrell said students who graduate from Level 3 read on about a fifth grade level and typically that is where the program ends because that’s where the state funding ends. In September, Bootstrap will offer a Level 4 language class that is contextualized to health care and will give participants the ability to acquire other health-care-related certificates, Tirrell said.There is a plan for a similar class tied to advanced manufacturing.The work/college readiness programs represent a major shift in adult education across the country, Tirrell said. There is a skills gap between adults completing a high school equivalency class and being able to step into a job or move on to higher education. The readiness programs are designed to close that gap, he said.The college readiness includes a 10-month college prep course or an advanced manufacturing 10-month basic adult education course and for those taking the health care path, 10 months of English language skills tied to health care.Work readiness includes course-like introduction to careers, valued work traits, resumes, interview skills and online job search skills.Tirrell said he has also been working closely with the Workforce Investment Board, North Shore Community College and Salem State University to better understand the labor market so Bootstrap can better tailor its offerings for what students need to succeed.”There are thousands of jobs going unfilled because there aren’t trained, skilled people to fill them,” he said.Tirrell said the notion that people living at or below the poverty level don’t want to work or better themselves is absurd.”We have people working two jobs and still coming here three and four days a week to learn,” he said. “It’s nonsense to say that people don’t really want this. We have people that are eager, motivated and hardworking. Anyone can walk in here any day and see that that’s not true.”