The Maine Department of Education (DOE) is planning to spend $26,000 on an online English language learning platform to assist the state’s adult education programs that are seeing an increase in “multilingual learners.”
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The Maine DOE submitted a request to waive competitive bidding on Thursday, seeking to pay a total of $26,250 to the EnGen English language learning platform to reserve 250 seats in their adult education programs.
According to Maine DOE, “multilingual learners” (MLs) account for over 50 percent of all adult education students statewide.
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“Smaller adult education programs are increasingly needing to offer English language acquisition classes, but often lack the human and capital resources and time to provide
high-quality contextualized instruction for MLs,” the department wrote in their request.
The EnGen platform is different from other English learning platforms due to its “focus on specific careers and work readiness,” according to Maine DOE.
EnGen offers contextualized English language courses that are sector-specific, including courses related to nursing, manufacturing, early childhood education, and commercial driving, among tens of other options.
“Contextualizing the English learning with the career pathways content accelerates language learning and gives MLs the opportunity to reach their career goals more quickly,” Maine DOE wrote.
The 250 seats that would be reserved in the EnGen programs for multilingual learners would be fully transferable, so a seat may be reassigned when a student is inactive, and seats can be reused.
