Education for Tomorrow's Jobs (1983)

Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.

VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND THE PRIVATE SECTOR 47 3 Vocational Education and the Private Sector In Chapter 2 we saw that close ties between schools and the workplace can benefit students. The vocational education programs that have higher economic and occupational benefits generally also have close and effective relationships with employers. Students who participate in supervised work programs while they are in school tend to fare better once they graduate and work on their own. Further support for this conclusion comes from experience with employment training programs outside the public education system: Virtually all of the effective special training and service programs designed for disadvantaged people operate in conjunction with employers—and some with unions and community-based organizations as well. Who initiates collaborative efforts? How do they work? What institutional or administrative arrangements do they require? What do they accomplish? In this chapter we present information on collaborative efforts involving vocational educators and students and private-sector employers. We discuss a number of specific collaborative activities that have been viewed as successful and the institutional and administrative arrangements of the vocational education system that affect collaboration. We also discuss the role of vocational education in economic development efforts, principally the tailoring of education and training programs to meet the needs of employers moving into an area. The collaborative efforts of principal concern to the committee are those linking high-school vocational education and the private sector that seek to improve the employability of students. All involve cooperation and communication between education and business, and many involve organized 

VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND THE PRIVATE SECTOR 48 labor, community-based organizations, chambers of commerce, and local government. Some of the material in our discussion has been drawn from a paper written for the committee by Sean Sullivan (1983), “Private Initiatives to Improve Youth Employment,” which reviews several collaborative efforts. EXAMPLES OF COLLABORATIVE PROJECTS Up to this point this report has focused primarily on a traditional model of providing education and training for employment: students learning the basic education and occupational skills in public schools offering vocational education programs and gaining work experience at an employer's place of business. In this section we discuss the variety of forms collaborative ventures can take—the many ways employers and educators can work together to improve the education and employment experiences and prospects of students. We also describe a number of specific collaborative efforts that have been viewed as successful by those involved in the projects. We caution that judgments of success are not based on rigorous evaluations of program procedures or outcome measures but rather on the opinions of those who have worked with the projects or who have participated in them. Different institutional arrangements for providing occupational education and training and different mechanisms for collaboration are appropriate for different situations. The variations involve who actually does the teaching, who pays the teachers' salaries, who pays for facilities and equipment, and where the facilities and equipment are located. In the case of new and expanding industries, it may be appropriate for employers to take the major responsibility for training students, since schools may not be prepared, in terms of equipment or teachers, to train entry-level employees for those industries. In such cases, employers can obtain the skilled workers they require by providing access to their facilities and equipment for instructional purposes. Employers can also provide their own personnel as instructors. These arrangements can be initiated by one firm or a combination of firms needing workers with similar skills. If the industrial equipment is movable or exists in sufficient supply, employers may instead place the necessary equipment in the school. Under this arrangement, the instructors may be employees of the firm or they may be vocational education teachers from the school system. Collaborative efforts offer several advantages to employers. They may participate in such projects in order to increase the pool of qualified workers from which they can draw. Such arrangements allow employers to screen the students before hiring them for jobs. They may also reduce job turnover, 

VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND THE PRIVATE SECTOR 49 since the students learn what is expected of them on the job while in training, thus effectively reducing the employers' recruitment, hiring, and training costs. Community-based organizations can often contribute significantly to collaborative ventures, particularly those aimed at young people who are economically disadvantaged or members of minority groups—the constituents of the organizations. Community-based organizations are especially valuable in recruiting eligible young people, developing jobs—perhaps with minority- owned or minority-operated businesses—and supervising work experience (SER/Jobs for Progress, no date). Schilit and Lacey (1982) described 55 diverse programs involving collaboration between educators and private-sector employers. Although the evaluation data were not presented and the evaluations were generally not rigorous, all 55 programs were said by school administrators, teachers, students, and employers to have been successful at their particular goals. Most started with a small pilot effort, often initiated by a single firm or school, and grew to accommodate more students, schools, or employers. Some businesses became involved in additional projects after their initial experience with the schools. Most collaborative efforts relied on local initiatives; federal funding served as the impetus for very few. Most of the programs cited by Schilit and Lacey were not new. About one-fourth of the 55 projects had existed for 10–20 years; only 5 had started less than 2 years before the study. In some situations, local chambers of commerce, business associations, or other organizations are needed to coordinate the efforts of several firms. For example, the Training Opportunities Program places junior and senior vocational students in part-time jobs throughout New York City. Business and labor advisers identify groups of jobs in small firms that are expected to contribute to the economic development of the area. The board of education supplies the funds for the salaries of the student workers (New York City Public Schools, no date; Schilit and Lacey, 1982). In other places, students run their own businesses with assistance from established local firms. In Montgomery County, Maryland, for example, with the financial and technical support of local business executives and private foundations, vocational schools establish businesses that are run entirely by students. Students have constructed and sold houses, and they have operated a small automobile dealership. The profits they make are used to support the programs. Collaborative efforts need not be limited to senior high schools, though that is the focus of this report. In Los Angeles, Atlantic Richfield (ARCO) “adopted” elementary schools and allowed several hundred employees to volunteer during working hours to tutor, conduct short courses, and super 

VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND THE PRIVATE SECTOR 50 vise ARCO-funded field trips to businesses and cultural sites. Fonte and Magnesen (1983) reported on a cooperative program in which Triton College in Illinois and community colleges in other states served as training sites for the General Motors Automotive Service Education Program. Apprentice mechanics enroll in the two-year program to learn mathematics, electronics, communications skills, and a variety of automotive topics. Not all collaborative programs at the secondary level are aimed at vocational students or have as their goal the teaching of vocational skills. For example, Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Corporation established reading and math centers in the schools in Oakland, California, to help students master these basic skills (Levine and Doyle, 1982). The centers featured individualized instruction and tutoring from peers. Students who made the most progress in the learning centers were offered part-time jobs as a reward for their achievements. In the following pages we describe nine examples of collaborative ventures that are generally viewed as successful. Material for these descriptions was drawn largely from Schilit and Lacey (1982), Sullivan (1983), and Robison (1978). The first three examples—Success on the Move, Opportunities Industrialization Centers, and the Career Intern Program—were developed by private parties but involve funding from either the U.S. Department of Labor or the U.S. Department of Education. The other examples do not involve federal funding; they are strictly cooperative ventures between business and education at the local level. Success on the Move In 1979 Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Corporation worked with the high schools in Oakland, California, to create a program called Summer on the Move, which was designed to improve the basic academic skills of disadvantaged high-school students while giving them summer work experience in local businesses. In 1980 the program was expanded to a year-round operation, Success on the Move, through the efforts of Youthwork, Inc., a nonprofit organization, and a grant from the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation to test a private-sector/education partnership approach nationally. The program's curriculum emphasizes improvement of basic communication, computational, and problem-solving skills in ways that students can relate to work—skills that employers had identified as important in employment. Participants in Success on the Move are given part-time and summer jobs with local employers. Work experience exposes them to the demands and discipline of a job, allows them to apply the skills they have been learning, and acquaints them with the kinds and requirements of entry-level jobs 

VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND THE PRIVATE SECTOR 51 available. In the six-week summer program, students get classroom instruction in the morning and work in the afternoon. The school-year program involves an extra hour of daily classroom study plus an average of 10 hours paid work each week for 15 weeks. Students are selected through interviews and recommendations. The difficulties encountered in developing this kind of cooperative venture include generating enough jobs; establishing and maintaining contact between employers and educators; and involving employers in planning, curriculum development, instruction, and evaluation. Opportunities Industrialization Centers Opportunities Industrialization Centers (OIC) is a network of over 100 organizations that provide employment training and other services to members of minority groups and to economically disadvantaged people across the nation (Robison, 1978). Each local center is an independent affiliate of Opportunities Industrialization Centers of America (OIC/A), located in Philadelphia, which provides technical and administrative assistance to the local centers. OIC was founded by the Reverend Leon H. Sullivan, who chairs the national board of directors of OIC/A. One distinguishing characteristic of OIC is its commitment to provide training only where guaranteed employment opportunities exist. A second is to serve the needs of the “whole person” by offering assistance in recruitment, counseling (including not only job-seeking skills and work habits but also basic skills education), prevocational training, vocational training, job development, and follow-up of individuals once they have jobs. To ensure communication and commitment from businesses at the national and local levels, the National Industrial Advisory Council, composed of leading business people from diverse industries, was formed. The council helps inform businesses about OIC and helps keep OIC programs current. There are at the local level advisory councils corresponding to the national council. Firms belonging to the local councils help OICs by donating equipment and funds, lending supervisors and instructors, organizing fund-raising activities, and providing on-the-job training and jobs. OICs also give employers classes in awareness training so that supervisors can learn some aspects of the culture of the minority groups represented by the program participants with whom they will be working. Because OICs train for jobs that are known to exist, they develop and maintain close relations with employers and develop specialized training programs to meet their needs. The Office of Vocational and Adult Education in the U.S. Department of Education is currently promoting the work begun by Sullivan and carried 

VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND THE PRIVATE SECTOR 52 forward by the OICs. The office is currently running a national Task Force on Entrepreneurship Education and Training. One of its emphases is on management training for members of minority groups who own or operate small businesses. The Career Intern Program The Career Intern Program (CIP) was developed by Opportunities Industrialization Centers in cooperation with school boards in five cities, with funding by the National Institute of Education, as an alternative high-school program to keep potential dropouts in school. The first program was located in Philadelphia, and other sites were added after several years of experience at the first. Courses are coordinated with the regular public school system and stress basic academic skills and attitude improvement. Classes are held at sites away from the schools because the organizers believe (on the basis of evidence from the Job Corps) that the young people learn better outside traditional classrooms. The subjects taught are occupationally related, and classroom study is supplemented by visits to work sites. Interns are given intensive counseling as well as instruction to prepare them to behave appropriately in the workplace. As they accrue more credits, their course work contains more specialized career- oriented subject matter. They also spend more time at work sites observing and, where regulations allow, performing some tasks. As graduation approaches they are assisted in looking for jobs or enrolling in postsecondary institutions. Sullivan (1983) notes that an evaluation of the program in Philadelphia found that participants were significantly more likely to stay in school than were members of a control group, and studies of the other sites concluded that the approach could be replicated. OIC has a design for implementing the Career Intern Program nationally, but funding from the National Institute of Education has been depleted and no new sources have been found. The South Central Connecticut Regional Council on Education for Employment The South Central Connecticut Regional Council on Education for Employment begins the process of career education in elementary school. It grew from an earlier program, started by the Olin Corporation, to allow New Haven high-school vocational education students to learn work skills directly on the job. The Connecticut Foundation for School/Community Relations brought together firms, schools, and public agencies, with financial support from Olin and from the state department of education. A novel example of its efforts is the school-bank program, which involves nine 

VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND THE PRIVATE SECTOR 53 banks working directly with nine inner-city classes of primary-school students and their teachers. The curriculum, developed jointly by teachers and bank staff, allows each class to spend several hours each week in the bank, using knowledge of arithmetic while learning about bank operations and using calculators and computer terminals. A three-year evaluation of this program found that participants had significantly higher math achievement levels than control-group members. The St. Louis Work-Study Program About 2,500 students have taken part in the St. Louis Work-Study Program since its inception in 1967. High-school students spend mornings on academic studies and afternoons on paid jobs. Both sessions take place at business locations. Students can explore careers, learn business skills and behavior, and gain experience on the modern equipment available in large firms. Conducting classes at the work site is thought to promote communication among teachers, work supervisors, and students; it also allows feedback on the relevance of the academic program to the job. A grant from the Danforth Foundation helped establish the first partnership, between the schools and the Ralston-Purina Company, which still has the largest program: As many as 40 high-school seniors from inner-city schools participate each year. The St. Louis board of education assigns two teachers to the Ralston-Purina program, one to teach academic and the other business courses. Corporate personnel have the main responsibility for training and supervising students on the job, but the teachers remain on the site to help coordinate work experience with classroom instruction and to monitor students' job performance. Students are screened by the schools and matched with particular jobs and are paid the minimum wage for a 20-hour work week. They earn academic credit for the training as well as for the course work. Company supervisors—who are volunteers—rate the students after each of four 10-week periods on attendance, punctuality, work habits, skills and knowledge, attitudes, and personal characteristics. These ratings help the teachers to refine the curriculum and to work with students on individual needs. An average of 75–80 percent of the students have been placed annually, and another 15–20 percent have continued their education; the annual attrition rate is less than 5 percent. The Continental-Illinois Bank Continental-Illinois Bank in Chicago has employed more than 1,000 students in part-time jobs since the beginning of its work-study program in 1972. The bank has found work-study participants better motivated and 

VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND THE PRIVATE SECTOR 54 better adjusted to the work world when they become full-time employees. The bank and public high schools jointly screen and place applicants. Students are chosen on the basis of their school attendance records, abilities, attitude, appearance, and desire for a business career. They may begin working the summer before their senior year and typically continue working 20 hours a week during the school year, usually as clerks and typists. In 1981 Continental-Illinois Bank hired 80 percent of the students as full- time employees after graduation. An internal evaluation in 1977 found that work-study employees had a higher retention rate, a better attendance rate, and somewhat superior performance ratings than other employees at their level. The Skills Training Education Program The Skills Training Education Program (Project STEP) is a partnership between the Security Pacific National Bank and the 11 California Regional Occupational Programs that were established to help 72 of the state's school districts provide vocational training programs. Aimed primarily at high-school students (although some older adults are also served), Project STEP offers about 100 classes in a variety of banking skills. The courses are taught at 30 bank branches throughout the state, mostly in the Los Angeles area. Bank employees who have obtained state teaching credentials after taking a 60-hour teacher training course conduct the classes on weeknights and Saturdays and are paid by the local school districts. Students enroll in the classes as electives on the recommendation of their advisers and receive school credit and grades. Classes range from 70 to 180 hours per semester, depending on the skills and equipment involved. Training is given to about 2,500 students each school year, at least 90 percent of whom are in high school. Security Pacific has hired at least 25 percent of the program's graduates, and other banks have hired many more. There is no formal placement assistance, but students practice filling out applications, taking clerical tests, and preparing for job interviews. Graduates receive letters of completion signed by bank vice presidents to help them. Project STEP is one of Security Pacific's Community Education Development programs, which reach 4,000 students annually. The bank also sponsors a career awareness program for children in 10 Los Angeles elementary schools. Each year about 200 students visit the main bank office to learn about opportunities and career requirements in banking. Twice annually bank employees visit junior high schools to encourage students to stay in school. Through the Exploratory Work Experience Education Program, 100 students visit bank offices each year to observe various jobs. And twice each summer 20 teachers, administrators, and counselors take part in 

VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND THE PRIVATE SECTOR 55 a Summer Career and Economic Education Workshop for Educators. The workshop gives them a close look at banking careers and functions and helps them to develop a career education curriculum for their own schools. The banking industry seems particularly well suited for collaboration with vocational education programs. Banks are present in virtually every community, the job functions vary little from one place to another, and because of high turnover rates banks often have large numbers of entry-level positions to fill. These include jobs such as teller, data entry operator, typist, clerk, stenographer, and word processor operator—all requiring skills taught in various vocational education programs. The Philadelphia Academies In 1969 a prototype industrial academy was started in Philadelphia for inner-city young people who could not qualify for vocational schools because they had approximately fifth-grade-level basic skills. The prototype became the Academy of Applied Electrical Sciences, directed toward students entering high school, since the greatest dropout rate occurs during the high-school years. This model three-year educational program has since given rise to three more academies—the Philadelphia Business Academy, the Academy of Applied Automotive and Mechanical Sciences, and the Philadelphia Health Academy. All are alternative schools within the Philadelphia school system, serving some 650 students. The electrical sciences academy was conceived by a team with representatives from business and industry, labor, and education. The curriculum was designed to help students see the need to improve their reading and math abilities in order to gain specific occupational skills and thereby to motivate them to stay in school. There is also a “factory” at the academy to provide after-school and summer work experience as well as some income. The attendance rate at the academy has been 90 percent compared with 55 percent for the high schools overall, and its dropout rate has been only 1 or 2 percent compared with 30 percent overall. The other academies have been modeled after the electrical sciences academy and supported by corporations. Each academy has a full-time director on loan from or paid by a major firm. Part-time instructors from industry and regular teachers from the schools work as a team. The program's key elements are its emphasis on the linkage between basic and vocational skills and its efforts to find jobs for the students after school and during the summer. The Philadelphia academies' approach is now being tried in California. Many entry-level jobs were found to be going unfilled in the San Francisco area because public schools were concentrating on college-bound students 

VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND THE PRIVATE SECTOR 56 and failing to prepare potential semiskilled workers for the labor market. The Peninsula Academies have been established to upgrade the basic skills of disadvantaged students while motivating them to finish high school by combining academic and vocational education with job training. The Training Opportunities Program A newer initiative is the Training Opportunities Program, developed by the Office of Occupational and Career Education in New York City. The purpose is to provide on-the-job training opportunities in private businesses to high-school juniors and seniors. The first-year program involved about 1,000 students, selected on the basis of interest, occupational goals, handicapping conditions, limited English-speaking ability, and interest in nontraditional careers. A total of 15 occupational clusters were identified on the basis of expanding employment needs requiring technical and heavy-equipment skills and were matched to occupational training programs in 14 participating high schools. Commitments for training slots in private industry were developed with a focus on companies with 50 or fewer employees. Each high school selected 65–70 students who also participated in a workshop on employability skills one class period per week throughout the training period. For the first six weeks students participated in vocational exploration at the work site, during which they were paid stipends by the program equal to the minimum wage. (This period was shortened to two weeks in the 1982–1983 program.) Throughout the training period employers paid half the stipend, for a maximum of 15 hours on site a week. Firms made the final selection of students and evaluated them formally twice during the year. Trainees received vocational academic credit contingent on satisfactory ratings by their supervisors. The program was expanded in 1982 to accommodate 1,500 juniors and seniors from 25 high schools. It is funded by local taxes as well as by the employers, who contribute their facilities and equipment and pay half the stipend. ADMINISTRATIVE ARRANGEMENTS As Chapter 2 describes, a diversity of institutions offer vocational education programs, all with their own policies and procedures. We believe that some of these institutional characteristics affect both the quality of the programs that schools offer and the collaborative efforts that they might undertake with the private sector. In this section we discuss those characteristics and some additional administrative details independent of the schools themselves. 

VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND THE PRIVATE SECTOR 57 In their study of vocational education in large cities, Benson and Hoachlander (1981) found that vocational programs in specialized schools (regional vocational centers or vocational high schools) were generally superior to those in comprehensive high schools. They identified five interrelated characteristics of program quality: (1) intensity of instruction, (2) attitudes and experience of teachers and counselors, (3) relationship between teachers and employers in relevant industries, (4) availability of current equipment and instructional materials, and (5) probability of graduates' finding employment with relatively high wages. Benson and Hoachlander proceeded to identify four factors that seemed to account for the higher quality of vocational programs in specialized schools: (1) greater depth of programming, offering students a full sequence of courses covering a given occupation; (2) the ability to hire and retain more experienced instructional staff, those with trade certification in some cases rather than teacher certification, and those who want to teach part- time; (3) higher priority for vocational education than in comprehensive high schools, where it is most often seen as having lower status than academic education; and (4) greater opportunity for collaboration with business and industry. Several types of organizations already in existence can foster collaboration between vocational education and private-sector employers. Two that we discuss below are vocational education student organizations and industry- education-labor collaborative councils. Student Organizations There are nine major national student organizations in secondary and postsecondary vocational education, with student memberships totalling over 1.7 million in 1980–1981. The organizations recognized by the U.S. Department of Education are the American Industrial Arts Student Association, Distributive Education Clubs of America, Future Business Leaders of America, Phi Beta Lamda, Future Farmers of America, Future Homemakers of America, Health Occupations Students of America, National Postsecondary Agriculture Student Organization, Office Education Association, and Vocational Industrial Clubs of America. Their goals are to promote the development of vocational competencies, civic responsibility, and leadership skills in their members. These student 

VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND THE PRIVATE SECTOR 58 organizations are not mandated by law, nor are they supported by public funds, but they often play an important part in the lives of vocational education students. The student organizations are supported by members' dues, donations from individuals and business and industry, and by the proceeds of projects they undertake. Some of the national organizations were formed over 50 years ago, and some local clubs are more than 70 years old. The involvement of business, industry, and labor is an important component in these student organizations. Business and union leaders donate their time and money to them. They provide information on employment needs and education requirements. Corporate and labor leaders serve as members of their boards of directors and participate in workshops or lecture series. They also judge activities that serve as the basis of awards given to vocational club members, which are commonly used as incentives for outstanding achievement in the clubs. The clubs actively solicit employers to participate with them and encourage business, industry, and labor leaders to provide work and on-the-job training opportunities, to serve on advisory committees, and to conduct career workshops for students. In 1982, for example, the National Advisory Board of the Distributive Education Clubs of America sent a flyer to employers encouraging their involvement in vocational education. The brochure listed 57 employers (including the U.S. Armed Forces) that are actively involved with vocational education. Similar promotional activities have taken place at the state and local levels as well. Collaborative Councils In the late 1970s a number of local collaborative councils were formed to enhance cooperation among business and industry, labor, and education. Not all the councils have started so recently; some date back to the 1960s and one was initiated in 1947. The National Institute for Work and Learning published a directory of 150 such councils in 1981 (Gold et al., 1981). These councils have been locally initiated and depend on local leaders for their support and effectiveness. However, other broad-based groups, such as the local advisory councils for vocational education (discussed in Chapter 2), the private industry councils initiated by the federal Comprehensive Employment and Training Act and continued under the Job Training Partnership Act, and career education action councils started under the federal Career Education Incentive Act of 1977, are similar to the local collaborative councils catalogued by the National Institute for Work and Learning. Many of these broad-based councils have received widespread recognition as initiators of effective collaborative efforts between vocational education 

VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND THE PRIVATE SECTOR 59 and the private sector in recent years. Councils that coordinate education and employment effectively, however, do not exist in all local areas. Elsman reported the results of a study by the National Institute for Work and Learning (Elsman and the National Institute for Work and Learning, 1981). He observed that there is no typical pattern in the genesis of a collaborative council. They have been started by schools, chambers of commerce, businesses, other existing advisory boards, and elected officials. They are extremely diverse in their operations, their goals, and their activities as well as their beginnings. He notes that they all have broad-based membership representing more than two sectors, usually education, industry and business, labor, government, and other organizations serving young people. They are self-organized and responsible for their own continuation. They serve as neutral ground for the discussion and resolution of issues concerning members with different institutional affiliations and allegiances. Strong leadership within the council that is reflected in its dealings with the community is essential to the formation and effective functioning of a collaborative council. Some are affiliated with national groups, such as the National Work-Education Consortium or the National Association of Industry-Education Cooperation. There are also several state and regional associations of local collaborative councils. VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT In Chapter 1 we described some of the changes in the nature of jobs since World War II; more recently there have been marked geographic shifts in the location of jobs. Formerly prosperous centers of industry have become economically depressed because of declines in those industries. Perhaps the most notable examples are the American automobile and steel industries, although manufacturers of many other goods—durable and nondurable—have suffered as well. Within depressed areas, the economic impact of massive layoffs or plant closings spreads to other parts of the local economy—to the places those workers would be spending their money if they were employed. In addition, declining industries are likely to curtail their training and apprenticeship programs. In response to declining or unfavorable economic conditions, some regions of the country, all states, and some localities have adopted economic development strategies. Generally the goals are to attract new industries, revitalize existing industries, expand or diversify a state's economic base in order to increase tax revenues, and increase the employment rate for residents of the area by either retraining workers or expanding job opportunities. Some states house the administrative responsibility for economic development in a single agency, and others set up arrangements that rely on 

VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND THE PRIVATE SECTOR 60 the cooperative efforts of several existing agencies. In most cases, administrators give form to their belief that a strong education and training system positively influences location decisions by including vocational education in their economic development strategies. Educators or training professionals assess employers' needs, plan training programs, develop curricula and training materials, and sometimes conduct the training programs. Employers often arrange for the education and training they need for their workers under contract with schools or local education agencies. Economic development strategies have turned to researchers studying the creation of jobs to try to determine which firms to try to attract in order to increase employment in a locality. Birch is often cited in the economic development literature, but his work has been severely criticized (Armington and Odle, 1982). Birch concluded that small firms account for the creation of a majority of jobs in this country. He used establishment size as a proxy for firm size, thereby counting a local franchise of a national corporation, for example, as a small business. He also neglected to consider the failure rate of small businesses, which is very high and accounts for significant job loss. A report by another committee of the National Research Council, Rethinking Urban Policy: Urban Development in an Advanced Economy (Hanson, 1983), presents a detailed analysis of the effects of these geographic and economic shifts on American cities. The report suggests that cities plan their economic development strategies to take advantage of their available resources. For example, in several cities the large commercial banks that had previously served primarily the locality have worked increasingly on the national and international levels. Similarly, the Boston area has for many years taken advantage of its strength in higher education institutions to attract high- technology firms and other companies that rely heavily on a highly educated work force. On a regional scale, it has been proposed that New England use its concentration of colleges and universities to attract firms, especially high- technology or research firms, as manufacturing in the area declines (Commission on Higher Education and the Economy of New England, 1982). In 1982 the Committee for Economic Development released the results of its study of public-private partnership in seven American cities (Committee for Economic Development, 1982; Fosler and Berger, 1982). The seven cities studied, all representing purportedly successful experiences in solving urban problems, are examples of ways in which civic leaders have taken a large variety of local conditions into account, used to full advantage the strengths available, and achieved success. Local initiative supported by strong civic leaders has proved essential in all cities. In Baltimore and Chicago, for example, a political system with a strong mayor in a central 

VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND THE PRIVATE SECTOR 61 role may have accounted for a portion of the success of the urban revitalization programs. The presence of large corporate headquarters favored Pittsburgh as well as Minneapolis and Saint Paul. Other factors, such as geographic location, economic base, or the age of the city, work to the advantage of other cities. However, the absence of these favorable characteristics does not imply failure in other cities. For example, Baltimore has had a declining economy and houses no major corporate headquarters but has nonetheless had some successful projects to revitalize portions of the downtown area. Education and training were by no means at the heart of the strategies of the seven cities, but they played a role in the communities' response to economic and employment conditions. In 1981 the American Vocational Association published a handbook for vocational educators to use in assisting with economic development strategies (Paul and Carlos, 1981). In preparing the book, the authors visited 17 sites with active economic development projects involving vocational educators. From the diversity of activities they encountered they extracted guidelines for vocational educators to use in working with economic development and industry personnel. The varied functions of a “linking agent,” a person coordinating the activities of educators and business people, are described. The handbook also gives instructions on how to plan industry training programs and how to secure funding and technical assistance for economic development activities. Bushnell (1980) stressed the importance of vocational education in economic development activities. His paper has a decidedly optimistic tone; he notes the numerous examples of active involvement of vocational educators in planning and implementing such state and local programs. However, a position statement of the National Association of State Directors of Vocational Education (1981:4) offers a slightly different perspective, noting: The role of vocational education in economic development is not mentioned in federal legislation [on vocational education]. It is not included in most state plans for vocational education. It cannot be found in the annals of accomplishments of vocational education. Even the dramatic accomplishments in economic development documented for some vocational education programs go unnoticed and unheralded by the national leadership. The document suggests ways in which vocational educators should improve program offerings and assert themselves in order to play a more active role in economic development. Taken together, these two documents (Bushnell, 1980; National Association of State Directors of Vocational Education, 1981) suggest that in many cases the involvement of vocational educators in economic development activities may have been less the result of their own 

VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND THE PRIVATE SECTOR 62 assertive efforts than recognition by others of the importance of a strong education and training system closely tied with businesses. While some vocational educators have initiated an active role in economic development efforts, many have not. Opportunities exist for more vocational educators to become actively involved in economic development efforts. CONCLUSION There is enormous variety in the types of activities that schools and businesses can collaborate to accomplish and in the arrangements they choose for doing so. The success of vocational education programs and their collaborative elements depends in large measure on their ability to respond and adapt to the changing economy and to local situations. In addition, federal and state laws and regulations, such as those regarding certification of teachers or corporate taxes, can positively affect vocational education programs and facilitate collaborative efforts.