Preparing for the Workplace Charting A Course for Federal Postsecondary Training Policy (1994) / Chapter Skim
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1 INTRODUCTION
1 INTRODUCTION
Pages 13-29
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From page 13... ...
These grants and loans provide over $20 billion annually in assistance to students in postsecondary programs (College Board, 19931.i Between onefourth and one-third of this total goes to students in vocational programs that do not lead to baccalaureate degrees. These grants and loans are the largest single source of federal funding for postsecondary vocational training, although they were not designed with the needs of vocational students 13
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From page 14... ...
The committee was asked to help the federal government assess the implications of multiple federal approaches to the provision of postsecondary vocational education and job training; to consider policy alternatives, ranging from increased coordination of existing programs through reallocation of resources to formulating entirely new approaches; and to make recommendations for a coherent and efficient federal policy on postsecondary preparation for work. THE COMMITTEE'S CHARGE: POSTSECONDARY TRAINING The charge to the committee to look at postsecondary preparation for work has directed our analysis toward those components of work-related education and training occurring after high school rather than focusing on high schools themselves, which have received so much national attention in recent years.
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From page 15... ...
The Carl D Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Education Act of 1990, which provides federal funds to states for distribution to school districts, schools, community colleges, and technical institutes, defines vocational education as "organized educational programs offering a sequence of courses which are directly related to the preparation of individuals in paid or unpaid employment in current or emerging occupations requiring other than a baccalaureate or advanced degree." The term vocational education can apply to both high school and post-high school programs.
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From page 16... ...
In this volume, we refer to the four kinds of training sought by these different groups as qualifying training, skills improvement training, retraining, and second-chance training. Federal programs cover all four types of training, ranging from financial aid that subsidizes qualifying training and (to a much lesser degree)
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From page 17... ...
This is a heterogeneous group, composed of individuals who started but never finished baccalaureate degrees, those who earned formal postsecondary training credentials, and high school graduates who may or may not have participated in formal training that did not occur in "regular schools." When adults without high school diplomas are added in, about four-fifths of the adult population are included. Despite rising levels of educational attainment, college completion remains the exception, even among young people.
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From page 18... ...
Informal, on-the job training was especially important for administrators of protective services; surveyors and mapping scientists; printing mach~ne operators; camera, watch, and musical instrument repairers; supervisors in agricultural occupations; construction inspectors; data processing equipment repairers; industrial engineers; statistical clerks; and personnel and labor relations managers.
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From page 19... ...
Table 1.2 shows that workers most apt to participate in skills improvement training are found in the same occupations as those most likely to get qualifying training: executive, administrative, and managerial; professional specialty; and technicians and related support.
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From page 20... ...
. Postsecondary Training and the Labor Market The labor market environment in which individuals and firms operate conditions and influences their decisions to undertake or provide training.
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From page 21... ...
But the committee detected growing concern about the costs posed by a labor market that discourages firms from training in an increasingly competitive global economy, as our discussion in the next section and subsequent chapters indicates. Any labor market system involves a host of structures and policies in addition to explicit training policies that impinge on individuals' and firms' training decisions.
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From page 22... ...
The years 1980 to 1990 saw only a slight revival at 1.2 percent per year. Slow productivity growth meant a slow growth in earnings adjusted for inflation and threatened the hopes of many for a rising standard of living.
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From page 23... ...
The fact that the wage premium paid by employers for college graduates fell seemed to bear out the hypothesis that the United States was increasing its supply of highly skilled workers more rapidly than employer demand. Researchers also proposed life-cycle theories of technological change to explain why a need for advanced skills could be found among people working with new technologies while skill levels fell as a technology matured.
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From page 24... ...
In a world where firms in advanced industrial economies find it difficult to compete on the basis of low labor costs, United States firms must find other sources of sustainable competitive advantage such as technological superiority, product innovation, quality of goods and services, etc. All of these alternatives to cost competition are thought to depend on having a high-quality labor force and organizational policies that allow human potential to be fully
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From page 25... ...
Employers sponsored significantly more skills improvement training in 1991 (for 16 percent of workers) compared to that in 1983 (11 percent)
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From page 26... ...
. classlilcatlons Shop-floor authority vested in first-line supervisors; sharp separation between labor and management Decentralized, with carefully managed division of responsibility among R&D and engineering groups; simultaneous product and process development where possible; greater reliance on suppliers and contract engineering ~1lrms Incremental innovation and continuous improvement valued Production Flexible automation With direct costs low, reductions of indirect cost become critical Outside purchasing based on price, quality, delivery, technology; fewer suppliers Real-time, on-line quality control Selective use of work groups; multiskilling, job rotation; few jobs classifications Delegation, within limits, of shopfloor responsibility and authority to individuals and groups; blurring of boundaries between labor and management encouraged
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From page 27... ...
(The Japanese metaphor: organization as family) Minimal for production workers, except Short training sessions as needed for for informal, on-thejob training core work force, sometimes Specialized training (including apprenticeships)
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From page 28... ...
These include human resource development strategies by firms (Kochan and Osterman, 1991~; differential investment in physical capital or intangible assets such as research and development; organizational development, such as supplier relationships for firms; macroeconomic growth policies; and efforts to increase national savings and reduce the deficit. That both demand and supply affect outcomes does not, however, reduce the imperative to assess seriously weaknesses in the training of the work force and to try to improve the way the United States trains its workers.
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From page 29... ...
NOTES 1. Federal assistance provided to students through grants and loans is greater than federal expenditures on grant and loan programs because the loan programs to date mostly involve government guarantees and interest subsidies rather than the direct provision of loan capital.
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