Building Skills Partnership

Worksite Vocational ESL Classes - Advance Program: BSP's intensive, six-month ADVANCE program, blending Vocational English as a Second Language (VESL) curriculum with job skills instruction. Classes are held at over 30 large, corporate worksites on work paid time, ensuring high attendance and graduation rates. Janitors who graduate from the 50-100 hour intensive courses are often promoted to higher paid day cleaning, event service, building maintenance, clean room, and supervisory positions. At many sites, ADVANCE participants are also paired with volunteers from client corporations or universities for one-on-one English and computer tutoring, bridging enormous cultural divides.

Health and Wellness: With the support from many partners, BSP incorporates health education worksite vocational ESL classes; and offers stand-alone health workshops at worksites and in the community. BSP's curriculum includes thematic units, ranging from diabetes to stress management, that address the most pressing health concerns of janitors and other immigrant workers. BSP hopes to improve the wellness of the workers by providing them with helpful healthy lifestyle tips that they can take with them to practice as well as implement into their daily lives.

Community Classes: Parent Education, ESL, Computer Literacy, and Citizenship: BSP offers a variety of community classes such as ESL, Computer Literacy, Literacy and Citizenship in an effort to provide janitors and other immigrant workers the opportunity for upward social economic mobility. Classes are taught by experienced BSP instructors or teachers provided by our partnerships with local educational agencies. In addition, BSP runs its Parent Education workshops (Parent University) for parents of school-aged children. The workshops are geared toward informing parents on how they can become involved in their children's education with the goal of attaining higer education.

Various in-kind contributions to support various training programs.