Workforce Training Fund Definitions of DEI, ESOL, and Climate Change Courses

Modified on Tue, Aug 20 at 11:43 AM

At the request of the Healey-Driscoll Administration, the Express Provider Portal prominently features three topics of Express-eligible courses for businesses: Climate Change; Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI); and English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL).

Please note that in order for a course tag of "Climate Change," "DEI," and "ESOL" to be approved, the course title or description submitted to the Express Program must explicitly reference the topic or make a reasonable case as to why the course should be categorized with the tag.

Here are the Workforce Training Fund's working definitions of Climate Change, DEI, and ESOL courses:

Climate Change courses help companies develop the skills of their employees to mitigate the impacts of climate change in the context of their jobs, and courses that promote responsible and sustainable business practices to bring about a decarbonized economy.
DEI courses develop employees’ skills and abilities to promote Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at any level of an organization. DEI courses could also be offered to a group or group of employees that are considered part of an underrepresented demographic.* The Workforce Training Fund defines the component parts of DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) as follows:
- Diversity: the condition of being different or having differences. Diversity more commonly refers to differences among people with respect to age, class, ethnicity, gender, health, physical and mental ability, race, sexual orientation, religion, physical size, education level, job and function, personality traits, and other human traits.
- Equity: the distribution of appropriate resources, which may vary based on the situation, for people to achieve equal results. This differs from equality, which emphasizes the equal distribution of resources irrespective of the impact that those resources have.
- Inclusion: offering of access to resources, privilege's, wealth, feelings of belonging, and positions of power.
ESOL courses provide workplace English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) instruction on-the-job for employees at a company. Courses can be designed towards specific levels of English learners (e.g., beginner, intermediate, advanced), or contextualized to fit a specific industry’s unique language needs (e.g., manufacturing, accommodation/food services, etc.).

The Workforce Training Fund aligns its marketing efforts to promote the submission of more courses to the Directory with the topics of Climate Change, DEI, or ESOL as their focus. We encourage providers to submit courses that can be categorized in one of these topic areas, and to share information about the Express Program with other training provider organizations in their network.

*Note: language skills training such as workplace ESOL, Spanish, etc. are not considered DEI courses for these purposes.