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ESL classes open doors for Ocean State Job Lot employees
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| Richard Giordano, Ocean State Job Lot director of logistics, applauds student worker Humberto Maravilla at the graduation ceremony for employees completing on-site ESL training. |
“Ustedes son especiales,” Robin Smith, the new CCRI Dean for Lifelong Learning, told a crowd of approximately 30 Ocean State Job Lot workers at an ESL certificate ceremony early this month. Translated into English, Smith’s words said simply, “You are special.”
Certainly this recognition had special meaning for the Latino workers, who have spent the last 15 weeks taking on-site classes to improve their English language skills through the CCRI program, Workplace Solutions. While the Rhode Island Department of Education covered most of the educational costs, Ocean State Job Lot paid workers for half of the 60 hours that its employees attended class, and the students donated the rest of their time. Not only did this shared commitment give the students an added incentive to do well, it also showed them that their employer is willing to make an investment in them, explained CCRI Program Coordinator Lynn Watterson.
Ocean State Job Lot’s Senior Vice President of Operations Richard Portno expressed these sentiments when he spoke during the certificate ceremony. “Your English is much better than my Spanish,” he joked. “This program will help the company, but more importantly, it’s going to help you.”
This is the second 15-week session CCRI has offered at Ocean State Job Lot’s distribution center in North Kingstown. Approximately 80 percent of the facility’s workers are Latino, and more than half speak little to no English, according to Eric Pina, director of human resources. During its first session at the warehouse, CCRI offered beginning and intermediate English classes to interested workers based upon their language proficiency. When this session concluded, a heartening event occurred, according to Pina. The students who had succeeded wanted to continue their education, and those who had not enrolled before now wanted a chance to improve their skills. This session, program coordinator Watterson built in a new advanced class to keep the high-achieving students challenged.
“The feedback I’m getting,” said Pina, “is that the employees feel they are accomplishing something.”
Prior to taking courses with CCRI, Job Lot employee Victoria Alcoba relied on her young son to translate conversations for her. During the certificate ceremony, Alcoba stood up from her chair to deliver a short speech, handwritten on a piece of paper she had stashed in her back pocket. Her accent was thick, but her meaning was unmistakable:
“All of us are very grateful to you for teaching us to speak English. When we began working here, we didn’t speak any English. Now we all understand more and speak better,” she said. “Thank you so much.”
