Language Barrier Begone

This company is teaching English to their employees, during the workday. This will help them work safer, understand instructions, get along with the other workers and also function better outside of work. DP

Sturbridge manufacturer brings in teachers to bridge the gap

By Matthew L. Brown, Worcester Business Journal Staff Writer

wbjournal.com: A Sturbridge company dealing with a problem manufacturers have faced since the first wave of Industrial Revolution immigrants hit New England’s shores has come up with a way to topple language barriers: Teach employees English on company time.

G&F Industries, a plastics company just off Route 20 in Sturbridge, was finding it difficult to make all of its employees understand their jobs, their safety and their coworkers due to language barriers. According to Mark Berry, the company’s operations manager, about one third of G&F’s 120 employees primarily speak languages other than English, mostly Spanish and Mandarin.

A basic language barrier can be problem enough, but “the nature of the manufacturing business we’re in, it has a lot of its own vocabulary,” Berry said. So getting every employee to learn English was also a workforce development initiative for G&F.
G&F manufactures injection molded plastic components for the auto, medical and consumer electronics industries.

“What we really want them to do is understand the job, understand safety and understand the workplace documentation,” Berry said. He said when the company decided to make learning English part of the G&F job description, it first approached area community colleges but the schools did not have off-campus services available.

Literacy Volunteers of South Central Massachusetts does and was excited about helping G&F, Berry said. He said Literacy Volunteers had been contacted by other manufacturers facing the same problem, but those companies hadn’t started a program because they didn’t want to use company time for a literacy program.

Those companies may be missing out. According to Berry, the program hasn’t cost G&F a cent. Literacy Volunteers trained G&F managers to conduct the class and now the entire program is conducted in-house.

“You can send people out and they’ll be fine,” Berry said, but G&F wanted a program not just to teach English to employees, but to teach English as it relates to working at G&F. “We want our employees to understand what they’re trying to accomplish,” he said.
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