Education for Tomorrow's Jobs (1983) / Chapter Skim
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2. Education and Training for Employment
2. Education and Training for Employment
Pages 22-46
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From page 22... ...
notes, "An increasingly white-collar economy has no place for functional illiterates." This is not to say that vocational education should be limited to teaching basic skills. Quite the contrary, vocational education courses or programs can help students acquire occupational skills which virtually all will need, at least in the most general sense.
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From page 23... ...
(As the terms are defined by the Vocational Education Data System, postsecondary programs lead to an associate degree and adult education programs may lead to a certificate, a credential, or simply completion. ~ It is generally agreed that the figures cited above give an inflated estimate of vocational enrollments, since they count people enrolled in just one or two vocational education courses as well as those enrolled in programs comprising of a systematic set of courses and possibly work experience.
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From page 24... ...
S Department of Education's National Occupational Information Coordinating Committee: agriculture/agribusiness and natural resources, business and office occupa tions, health occupations, home economics (both occupational and nonoccupational)
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From page 25... ...
On the basis of enrollments in occupationally specific programs, the two most popular programs are business and office programs and trade and industrial programs, in which a total of more than 60 percent of all vocational education students are enrolled (Table 64. This pair of programs domi nates enrollments at all levels.
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From page 26... ...
Another type of work experience is participation in apprenticeship programs, which are generally jointly sponsored by industries and unions. Work-study opportunities are provided by local education agencies to full-time vocational education students who need money in order to begin or to continue their vocational education study.
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From page 27... ...
These students are typically in school part of the day and at work 3-4 hours a day outside school in any of a wide variety of occupations. In the 1976 Education Amendments, priority was given to funding cooperative education programs in geographical areas with large numbers of school dropouts or high rates of youth unemployment.
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From page 28... ...
Department of Labor registers apprenticeship programs that meet certain standards, which, for example, set the minimum age of apprentices at 16 years; prohibit discrimination in selection, employment, or training; require a schedule of work and training; and require related studies of a minimum length, an increasing schedule of wages, proper supervision and evaluation of apprentices, and recognition of successful completion (Grover, 19821. Vocational education schools sometimes provide some of the basic training but do not become involved in the on-thejob training in apprenticeship programs.
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From page 29... ...
. Vocational programs at the postsecondary level tend to serve a more heterogeneous clientele than at the high-school level.
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From page 30... ...
Nearly a quarter of the institutions were private noncollegiate postsecondary schools-often called proprietary schools, even though many are nonprofit institutions (National Center for Education Statistics, 1981~. Comprehensive is a label attached to what most of us think of as regular high schools; this term was used in the Smith-Hughes Act of 1917.
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From page 31... ...
Their high schools most often offer programs only in agriculture, business, and nonoccupational home economics. Rosenfeld (1981)
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From page 32... ...
The planning of programs receives increased emphasis and the importance of state and local advisory councils is stressed. Work-study and cooperative education programs also receive increased emphasis in the 1976 legislation.
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From page 33... ...
The act requires that its training organizations go first to the education agencies for the provision of education in the basic skills and that local and state education agencies be represented on the private industry councils and the state coordinating councils. The CETA system, which was replaced by
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From page 34... ...
The Education Amendments of 1976 and the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act Amendments of 1978 established national and state occupational information coordinating committees, which were charged with the development and use of state occupational information systems. The JTPA provides for continued support of these occupational information committees.
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From page 35... ...
: If the purpose is to enable poorer districts to maintain programs of the same quality as those offered in wealthier districts, the poorer districts should not be expected to spend an appreciable portion of their Federal funds year after year on program improvement projects. Similarly, if Federal dollars are to be used to provide programs and services for students with special needs, it is unlikely that they would be deployed to improve and extend services.
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From page 36... ...
As noted above, although procedures vary somewhat across states, funds are allocated to secondary schools or programs generally on the basis of school enrollment or attendance. Such funding formulas, called capitation funding, at the secondary level generally do not accommodate factors such as program costs, the costs of modifying programs to meet the demands of the labor market or changing occupations, the costs of providing remediation to educationally disadvantaged students, and the like.
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From page 37... ...
Lewis and Mertens ~ 1981 ~ also report that most studies show that vocational education reduces high-school dropout rates. They also cite evidence that work experience programs may help motivate students to stay in school.
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From page 38... ...
In general they found that differences in the earnings of vocational and other students were attenuated by several conflicting factors: Students who concentrate in vocational programs tend to hold their jobs for a relatively long time and tend to work in industries that pay well, but they tend not to work in unionized jobs or to enroll in postsecondary education institutions as often as others. The investigators attributed differences in the effects of vocational education for men and women to the different labor markets into which they move.
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From page 39... ...
Among various types of collaborative efforts (examples of which are discussed more fully in Chapter 3) , respondents most favored providing work experience for vocational students.
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From page 40... ...
The programs we cite in this section are the Job Corps, the Youth Incentive Entitlement Pilot Projects, and 70001 Ltd. Other federal employment programs, such as the Manpower Development and Training Act and other portions of CETA, have paid relatively less attention to training and instead have emphasized giving participants work experience, which has been shown to be less effective than classroom or on-thejob training in increasing postprogram earnings (Bass)
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From page 41... ...
, which followed participants for seven months, showed that, on the average, Job Corps participants earned more per week than those in comparison groups and more of them obtained employment, attended college, or joined the military services. They also showed other benefits, such as better health, and reported reductions in criminal behavior and drug or alcohol abuse.
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From page 42... ...
demonstration, which was authorized by the Youth Employment and Demonstration Projects Act of 1977. This program combined education and work in order to help reduce youth unemployment, to increase labor force participation, and to reduce school dropout rates of teenagers.
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From page 43... ...
First, considerable gains in employability can be made by young people who participate in programs offering remedial education, training, and wellstructured work experience. The gains appear to be statistically related only to the amount of time spent in education and training, but work experience seems to act as a motivator for people to continue in the programs.
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From page 44... ...
In their study of the effectiveness of vocational education programs for the National Institute of Education, Benson and Hoachlander ( 1981 ) found in the 12 states studied that the distribution of federal funds to local education agencies was not effective in meeting those congressional concerns.
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From page 45... ...
We believe we know what is important for vocational education students: mastery of the basic educational skills, exposure to a variety of occupations, mastery of the basic occupational skills, adoption of appropriate work habits, and participation in well-supervised work experience that is closely related to the school studies. Like others before us, we believe we know success when we see it, but we have no formula for making all programs successful.
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From page 46... ...
Adoption of our recommendations will require considerable courage but should result in substantial improvement in educational and ultimately in employment opportunities for America's young people. Evaluations of vocational education and other training programs fairly consistently show that supervised work experience in conjunction with education is important to success.
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