Paygro helping some of its workers learn English
11/19/03
South Charleston, Ohio - November 19, 2003 - Paygro, a manufacturer and distributor of natural resource materials, is helping some of its workers learn a job skill: the English language. Paygro has a largely Hispanic workforce. Of its 27 employees, called associates, about half are from Mexico, according to Bob Schanz, general manager of agriculture and environment for Garick Corp., owner of Paygro. News-Sun/Bill Lackey |
| DAVID SMIDDY uses an aerial picture of the Paygro company to teach English to a group of Hispanic men and women Thursday at the South Charleston company. |
In an effort to help them better understand their new living and work places, Paygro joined with the Clark County Literacy Coalition to teach Hispanic workers English. Priscilla Marshall, executive director, said the literacy center is providing on-site workplace English classes twice a week for six-week periods for the workers.
She said the class is based on workplace English vocabulary tailored to their needs. Additionally, she said, the goal is to encourage the workers to continue their studies at the Warder Literacy Center in Springfield.
Schanz said if employees better understand the English language, it will improve their production and increase their safety.
He said workers will have a better understanding of instructions for operating machinery. As an incentive, Schanz said that Paygro encourages associates' efforts by paying them for one-half of their hourly wage while they are in class. Schanz said the workers in the program have been with the company for three years and are heavy equipment operators and manual laborers.
When the classes started seven weeks ago, teacher David Michael Smiddy said, only two of the 12 in the class - 11 men and one woman - spoke a little English. Smiddy, a Springfield native, said he has a minor in conversational Spanish from the Language Institute in Costa Rica in 1995. He has taught English in Costa Rica, worked with children as a missionary in Colombia and also worked in Chile.
Delvin Harshaw, Springfield News-Sun
