However, they also wanted to continue with their traditional classes. A compromise was decided upon in which students would work on the craft for 30 minutes per class. Reflecting back on how the grant was written, the project was predetermined. Due to the ever-changing student population in adult education, a previous group of students had shown interest in this idea. When implementation actually began, a broad band of new students were attending the center.
Students generally are more accepting of a project they choose for themselves.
When choosing workplace skills to enhance, students continued to focus on the task as the most important skill to be learned. For example, when students chose the skills they wanted to improve, sewing was a tangible skill they wanted to acquire. Likewise, vocabulary development and math proficiency were easy to grasp during this project, but leadership, communication and teamwork skills were talents developed through experience. Doing the work would bring these skills to light. We chose to initiate more projects like this into our program to allow students the opportunity to further enhance these skills.