Have you heard conversations like these?
- Businessperson: Why does our school teach Spanish when we have a large Vietnamese population in our county? We need more trained workers – can we partner with schools or programs in the area to help us?
- Community service organization volunteer: We need support from the schools and businesses for our efforts to be successful. Community members we serve aren’t aware of credentialing or educational opportunities that can improve their work opportunities.
- K12 school administrator: How can we help students understand the value of their education and how it prepares them for their future? Do they know how to share their skills in job interviews and applications? Do they realize how in-demand some of their skills are in the workforce?
- CTE administrator: Can we offer additional Industry Recognized Credentials (IRC) that make our students stand out from other CTE grads? We can coordinate with more co-op business partners when we have more IRCs.
- College or university administrator: We need to improve enrollments and maintain our funding and our programs. Our institutional outcomes include community outreach and lifelong learning. How can we connect with our community and partner with other institutions to improve our outcomes?
Sometimes it seems like there’s a disconnect between these institutions in our communities, pillars of our economy. When it comes to world languages, the disconnect can feel even starker. High school students may not see the relevance of their language skills beyond taking an AP test or getting the Seal of Biliteracy at graduation. College students may focus on what will get them a job and may not recognize the value of languages in that context. Community service organizations and businesses may be trying to engage or meet the needs of multilingual community members but not know how to qualify the language ability of their staff to ensure they can accurately and effectively communicate in multiple languages.
Increasing Access to Credentialing Exams
There may not be a perfect solution to address all these challenges and opportunities, but one initiative is gaining popularity across the country: making credentialing exams available to the community at postsecondary testing centers (regardless of matriculation status). Some exams have to be taken in a specific testing center, but there are many credentials for which a qualifying exam can be administered in a school or other setting. Postsecondary institutions can increase access to credentialing exams by offering them at their campus testing centers.
Colleges and Universities in Alabama, California, Hawaii, Iowa, Nebraska, New York, Oregon, and Utah are opening their testing centers to the community. Whether through the division of continuing education, extension office, or the main campus, these schools are offering a place to take credentialing tests for specific skills.
Credentialing Language Skills
An ACTFL score is a valuable credential recognized in academic, commercial, and government sectors. This credential can lead to pay incentives, promotion opportunities, and qualifications for specific jobs. Many institutions offer ACTFL assessments for their world language or teacher education programs, so it makes sense for them to open this opportunity to others in the community. Some schools already do that! Of course, anyone can take an ACTFL test online, but not anyone can go to a campus to take the test in a physically proctored setting (rather than having to use a remote proctor). And not everyone knows that they can earn an industry recognized language credential simply by taking an ACTFL test.
Outreach is Key
Whether your context is business, K12, higher ed, or something else, you can reach out to your counterparts in the community and explore ways to increase access to language credentialing. Having an ACTFL language certificate can lead to pay incentives, new job opportunities, scholarship opportunities and more. Your local postsecondary institutions can increase access to credentialing opportunities that will benefit learners, employees, and community members at large, from youths through adults.
Advantages of offering credentialing exams to the public at your testing center:
- Outreach to the community, providing a service to the community
- Increased traffic on your campus, building familiarity and awareness with your offerings
- Offering more Industry Recognized Credentials (IRCs) at your institution can increase your funding and can help achieve institutional outcomes
- Many in the community may have skills they could certify but don’t know how to or where they can do so. This positions your institution as a valuable resource.
- Offering credentialing tests at your center provides access to a means to re-enter the workforce, go back to school, upskill/qualify for a raise, fulfill a required criteria for employment, etc.
Are you interested in exploring how you could offer language credentialing to your local community with ACTFL assessments? Contact us today to get started.
