Hispanic Chamber leads bilingual workplace training


By David Garbe
staff writer


AURORA — When Corydon Converting surveyed the 25 employees at its Aurora plant, the film-manufacturing company found requests for more and better training at the top of the list.

Training gurus and consultants are plentiful in the corporate world, but Corydon found itself with a challenge common to many manufacturers: Spanish is the native language for most of its workforce, and most training programs are conducted in English.

Enter the Aurora Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

Since early this year, the chamber has offered local companies a free, fully bilingual training program providing a wide variety of courses.

Funded by a $155,000 state grant, the program was designed to serve 80 students this year, its director, Robert Enriquez, said.

In six months, his six instructors have trained 130 workers at local factories. An additional 60 workers are enrolled now.

The demand is virtually bottomless, he said, given how many local factories rely on immigrant labor.

Language takes a low priority in an industry that relies on quality and fast production to out-compete global rivals with lower costs.

"If we were to spend time on English," Enriquez said, "we could take a year before we got to any actual manufacturing processes."

By helping employees work smarter immediately, he said, "We know we're making an impact for the companies. The key metrics have demonstrated it."

The training the chamber offers is not limited to specific trade skills, but can be designed to include everything from life skills to clerical skills as requested by employers. Courses can be designed to last a single day or many months.

At Corydon, the training was four hours per week for nearly six months and encompassed such things as applied mathematics, personal computer training and financial management.

"The idea is that, if people are better at life, they'll be better at Corydon," co-owner Bob McCaffrey said. "That sounds a little corny, but it's true."

McCaffrey said the training, which ended last week, produced the desired results. The company plans to bring the chamber's program to its other factory in Naperville, he said.

Enriquez said the chamber will continue offering the program without charge until its funding runs out and hopes to continue expanding it beyond that one way or another.

He acknowledged that the idea of giving up on English exclusivity as a business standard might push some political hot buttons, "but reality is reality," he said. "Like it or not, the manufacturing workforce doesn't speak just English."

An estimated 30 percent of the American manufacturing workforce is Hispanic, according to a 2002 Census Bureau report. In many non-union factories, where owners are better able to hire low-paid immigrant workers, Latinos are in the majority.

07/03/06

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