Pasadena City College Launches Formalized English Classes for Day Laborers

Women chatter excitedly as they piece together the alphabet with the help of a volunteer during the newly offered English course at the Pasadena Community Job Center.

Pasadena City College has partnered with the Pasadena Community Job Center to offer formalized English classes to day laborers and community members for the first time.

The Job Center connects more than 500 day laborers with homeowners and contractors in an organized and professional way every day.

The first English class received certificates in May and the summer course is now underway.

A new driver’s license course for the written exam is also offered at the Center on Fridays. The class helps prepare those undocumented immigrants who are now permitted to get a license after the passing of AB60 in January.

“I have lived in this country for 15 years and I have lost four trucks because I didn’t have a driver’s license. I am driving without a license right now and I am lucky I have not been stopped. That’s why I am taking the driver’s license class,” Juan Martin said during his English course.

The English courses focus on the basics of the alphabet and how to spell the tools they work with each day.

“The reason we do the letters is because sometimes they cannot be understood so they need to be able to spell it. We are talking about very rudimentary skills,” PCC Professor Jeff Crosby said.

The partnership with PCC allows anyone taking the free of charge courses at the center to be an enrolled student. With their student ID card, the workers are able to pursue a continued education at the community college.

Soon the Center will offer job skill development classes that specialize in the interests of the workers — gardening, construction, maintenance, housekeeping, and more. The specialized training will open options to be qualified for more jobs.

“I know how to say the names of the tools but I do not know how to write them. I am learning how to write them,” Salvador Martinez said, in the first level English course. “It is important for me to know these things because everyone speaks English in this country.”

More than 30 community members in addition to the day laborers participated in the first course. The group included multiple nationalities.

“We have some of the Asian community coming in and other ethnicities to take advantage of the classes. The beautiful thing is it is forcing the day laborers to talk English,” Angel Olvera, PCJC job coordinator said.

Flores Xochi is excited about opening the doors to the community with the classes so that the image of the day laborer can shift and be seen in a positive light.

“Often the day laborer community is marginalized and on the periphery of the community and not really engaged or accepted. I think that by the day laborers opening their center to the community may have some reciprocity effects I am hoping and that they are seen as part of this community and help it thrive,” Xochi said.

The workers coming to the job center are trained and well equipped to do the variety of jobs needed throughout the city.

“Our city has decided to create this space and by doing so is embracing the policies of inclusion not exclusion,” Pablo Alvarado said, founder of the PCJC.

Although some day laborers are American-born, most are among the 11 million undocumented mainly from Mexico and Central America. They endure discrimination, dangerous working conditions and often low wages or none at all. Many live in fear of deportation.

“These folks that are the clients there, the day laborers, they are already here in the community. This allows them some dignified work and when they do not have work it gives them a useful way to spend their time to increase their capacity,” Pasadena City Housing Director Bill Huang said.

The original intention of the job center was to bring the day laborers away from the U-Haul business on North Raymond Avenue as well as Villa Street and Fair Oaks Avenue to one centralized location where the workers have an indoor space to wait.

Inside the center computers are available, the workers can participate in several classes and the center even helps with taxes each year. Each day when a worker gets assigned to a job, the worker swipes in and a system tracks his hours, recording all his employment information particularly for taxes.

The Pasadena Community Job Center is funded partially by the City of Pasadena and supplemented with grants. This is the Center’s 14th year.

For more information visit http://pasadenajobcenter.com