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HARVARD GAZETTE ARCHIVES Graduates cross bridge to learning
Thirty-eight Harvard Faculty Club workers graduated from the University's first "Bridge" program at ceremonies at the Faculty Club on June 4. The pilot program, which provides basic literacy and language skills and/or courses leading to a high school equivalency degree, will serve as a model for a larger program. expected to reach about 500 employees each year beginning in September.
The "Harvard Bridge to Learning and Literacy" is available to those Harvard service workers, casual employees, and employees of long-term Harvard service contractors who need it. The program will be offered on-site and free-of-charge during paid release time, and is the product of a year-long look at improving the welfare of lower-paid workers at the University. President Neil L. Rudenstine praised the program, saying it is the "most important contribution Harvard could make to the life and career prospects of its entry-level workers. This program is consistent with the University's core mission, and I am pleased that we are in a position to provide leadership in this vital area." The Bridge Program offers literacy, English as a Second Language (ESL), high school general equivalency degree (GED), and pre-GED training, as well as computer training and career development assistance to employees who lack basic educational skills. These employees are predominantly clustered in the service occupations at Harvard (i.e., kitchen and retail food employees, custodial and housekeeping staff, and members of the grounds crew). Harvard’s Division of Continuing Education and the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy (NCSALL) at the Graduate School of Education have worked together with the Office of Human Resources to develop the program.
"This is the right kind of help for Harvard to offer because it uses our unique educational resources to give our workers the skills that will serve them for the rest of their lives," Rudenstine said. "Making the program available to longer-term casual employees and employees of service contractors recognizes that these individuals, though not part of our regular workforce, are part of the University community. The Bridge Program also benefits the University because it enables us to develop the skilled workforce we need from within our own ranks and improve productivity." According to a recent report, Opportunity Knocks; Training the Commonwealth's Workers for the New Economy (March 2000, produced jointly by Mellon New England and The Massachusetts Institute for a New Commonwealth and authored by John D. Donahue, Lisa M. Lynch and Ralph Whitehead Jr.), Massachusetts doesn't have enough training opportunities for those at the bottom of the pay-scale. "Massachusetts businesses are finding their competitive advantages eroding because critical positions are going unfilled. Massachusetts’ weak suit – compared to other states, and to our own needs – is providing skill-building opportunities for adults, especially lower-middle class and working-class adults." "The economy is increasingly rewarding workplace skills, and imposing a harsher penalty for lacking those skills," according to one of the report's authors, Jack Donahue (a former Labor Department official and now the Raymond Vernon Lecturer in Public Policy at the Kennedy School). "Helping low-wage workers boost themselves onto a trajectory of rising earning power is a terrific way for Harvard to define itself as a responsible employer – and is particularly fitting for an institution devoted to education. Let's hope other major employers follow the University's lead."
Copyright 2000 President and Fellows of Harvard College
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