| By Gale Staff |
During Adult Education and Family Literacy Week (September 18–24), you have a chance to promote the many ways your library supports these important, mission-critical functions.
In addition to helping adults build their foundational skills, the National Coalition for Literacy aptly broadens adult education activities to include developing computer skills, studying to become a citizen, or gaining skills to find a job or start a career. It’s learning about health, money management, and how to support children’s learning as well.1
Public libraries are helping to close the gap.
With programs and resources to help adults acquire and enrich basic skills, public libraries can help community members prepare for jobs and open new doors in a safe and non-threatening environment.
Gale can be a valuable partner to your library in a shared mission to support education and career goals. The following resources can help your adult learning community and their families:
Basic skill development and accredited high school diploma
Gale Presents: Peterson’s Test and Career Prep helps adults master basic reading, writing, and math skills with interactive tutorials and quizzes to teach reading comprehension, sentence skills, writing, and math. Whether patrons are English language learners, students, or adults looking to brush up on their skills, these tools help learners review fundamental concepts in a straightforward format.
Users can explore the full resources for help with standardized test preparation for high school equivalency, college entrance, career certification exams, and U.S. citizenship. Additionally, learners can get help researching and selecting college and graduate schools and finding tuition assistance.
Job seekers will find clear-cut information on resumés, cover letters, interviewing, and job networking, including videos, articles, and best practices as well as personalized career assessments and resumé-editing software with a full complement of resumé and cover letter templates.
Gale Presents: Excel Adult High School offers a pathway to a brighter future for adults without a high school diploma. This accredited program is 100 percent online; self-paced; and can be completed in 24 months, or less by transferring previously earned high school, GED®, HiSET®, or TASC credits.
Students are supported by highly qualified instructors, success coaches, tutors, and college and career counselors. Non-native English speakers can access translation tools in 135 languages to enhance comprehension and help break down barriers to learning. Plus, adults can get a head start earning up to 21 free college credits through ACE (American Council on Education) courses. Your library can graduate adults and change lives!
Upskilling/reskilling for work and life
Gale Presents: Udemy can help learners embrace what comes next. With Udemy, patrons gain unlimited access to nearly 20,000 on-demand video courses across 75 categories in business, technology, and personal development. Courses are continuously updated to keep content fresh.
Taught by world-class instructors, more than 11,000 courses are led by native speakers in Arabic, French, German, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Turkish. As the only library resource offering virtual skills training taught by native speakers, your library can now reach a more diverse set of patrons than ever before.
Gale Courses provides a virtual learning environment with more than 360 online, instructor-led courses focused on professional development, technology skills, and personal enrichment. Like in-person classrooms, these courses include discussion groups to collaborate with peers and instructors. Courses are six weeks long, with two lessons released per week.
The importance of early literacy
Miss Humblebee’s Academy is an online preschool learning program that’s as challenging as it is fun. It offers a comprehensive, standards-based academic, and social and emotional learning curriculum. Plus, it includes plenty of off-line lessons and activities to reinforce and expand on learning concepts while limiting screen time.
Make learning more discoverable
Libraries are finding value in offering the new Online Learning Portal. This free portal is a central hub for your Gale adult learning resources and helps your patrons find the resource that best meets their learning goals.
If you’d like to learn more about these vital adult and family education resources, visit our website or contact your public library consultant directly.
- Adult Education Transforms Lives, National Coalition for Literacy, accessed September 2023.