Community Education program brochures Metro North ABE - Consortium newsletter, Aug. 2015 | Page 3

ABE 101
Workforce Innovation &
Opportunity Act (WIOA)
With broad bipartisan support, the
Federal Workforce Innovation and
Opportunity Act (WIOA), was signed into
law on July 22, 2014. It is the first
legislative reform of the public workforce
system in 15 years, superseding the
Workforce Investment Act (WIA) of
1998. WIOA took effect July 1, 2015.
The WIOA will help job seekers and
workers access employment,
education, training, and support
services to succeed in the labor market
and will match employers with the
skilled workers they need to compete in
the global economy.
WIOA presents an extraordinary
opportunity to improve job and career
options for our nation’s workers and
jobseekers through an integrated
system that seeks to improve
coordination between the four core or
primary federal programs that support
employment services, workforce
development, adult education, and
vocational rehabilitation activities.
At the state level, WIOA establishes
unified strategic planning across the four
core programs to ensure and support
local- and state-led workforce
development boards; engages
employers to align training with needed
skills; develops and aligns performance
indicators for the core programs;
coordinates the needs of regional
economics; targets services to better
serve job seekers, including Career
Pathway training; improves access to
high-quality services to individuals with
disabilities; and supports easier access
to services.

Citizenship
Grant
Helping legal permanent
residents with instruction,
workshops, tutoring,
preparation, and legal
representation to become
U.S. citizens
Metro North ABE is pleased to be
partnering with Mid-Minnesota
Legal Aid and Minneapolis Adult
Education on a grant from the Office of Citizenship and Immigration
Services (USCIS) to provide citizenship preparation classes to
learners across Minneapolis and the
north metro area. The $200,000
grant award, made to Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid, was developed to
provide underserved legal permanent residents with citizenship instruction, workshops, tutoring,
naturalization preparation, and
legal representation in naturalization applications. Over the two
years of the grant, Mid-Minnesota
Legal Aid and its partners will assist 200 legal permanent residents
in becoming U.S. citizens.
In order to become a U.S. citizen
after birth, an individual goes
through the naturalization process,
which includes completing an application, being fingerprinted, completing an oral interview, taking
civics and English tests, and taking
the Oath of Allegiance to the
United States.

The English test has three parts;
reading, writing, and speaking. Additionally, applicants will be asked
a number of oral civics questions
that test their understanding of U.S.
history and government.

Metro North Adult Basic Education | Ph: 763-783-4870 | www.MetroNorthABE.org

In order to help learners prepare to
be successful applicants, Metro
North ABE is offering a series of
citizenship preparation classes.
During the 27-36 hour class, learners will work on learning and understanding the 100 questions that
may be asked during the civics interview, completing mock interviews, practice asking and
answering the questions on the
English and reading tests, and
more.

Learners in the classes will also
have the opportunity to meet with
attorneys from Mid-Minnesota
Legal Aid who are specifically assigned to work on this project to assist them with their application and
sort out any legal issues that they
may face as they apply for naturalization.

If you would be interested in helping learners prepare for their citizenship interview, please contact
Sarah Berres. She will have current
class schedules, locations, and
more information on how you can
help.

AUGUST 2015

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