Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 28, 1991                   TAG: 9103280446
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-7   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: MAG POFF/ BUSINESS WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

COMPANY AND EMPLOYEES BENEFIT FROM WORK-PLACE DIPLOMA PROGRAM

Curtis Stiff, manager of the Roanoke plant, said 100 of its 300 workers lacked diplomas.

Speaking Wednesday at a seminar on literacy in the work place, Stiff said 23 of those workers enrolled in a 10-week General Educational Development class conducted by the Roanoke public schools.

Tultex paid the $45 fee for each employee in the course. Classes were held at the plant cafeteria immediately after quitting time. The course began in September.

Stiff said 19 of the workers, or 83 percent of those enrolled, earned GED diplomas. Two others are still working toward that goal.

Stiff said a key factor in the success of the program was support from Tultex supervisors. The program is ongoing, he said, and another class will be offered later this year.

Employees who earn their GED diplomas have a greater opportunity to advance within the company, he said, and the company benefits from greater worker loyalty and self-esteem.

Stephen Nunes of Richmond, director of the Office of State Adult Literacy, said employers can sponsor four different kinds of programs.

The first, Nunes said, is a one-on-one tutoring program using volunteer tutors. Another is an adult basic education course conducted at public schools or at the work site. The third is the GED program, the type used by Tultex.

The most expensive and complex alternative, he said, is a program customized for the work place teaching subjects specified by the employer. Materials distributed at the seminar indicated school personnel are conducting that type of course for Tweeds Inc.

About 140 work-place programs are in progress in Virginia, with about 50 added every year, Nunes said.

He estimated that about 650,000 Virginians over the age of 25 are functionally illiterate because they read below ninth-grade level. He said the illiteracy rate ranges from 51 percent of the adult population in Buchanan County to 4.6 percent of the adults in Fairfax County.

The problem is getting worse, Nunes said, because 17,000 students drop out of Virginia schools each year while only 10,000 people earn their GED diplomas.

The seminar was sponsored by the Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce Education Committee and Blue Ridge Small Business Development Center, Literacy Volunteers of America, the Roanoke City Schools and Virginia Western Community College.