Abstract
To forecast the likely relationships between public education and industrial training in the 1980s, it is necessary to look at the national trends in relationships between public secondary education and industrial training in the late 1970s, the forces acting on those trends, and the interactions between education and employment. Improvement of these relationships demands strategies consistent with the economic, technological, cultural, and political contexts of the 1980s.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
“There is no industrial training ‘system’ in the United States, nor is current industrial training integrated in any significant way with the vocational education and training system for youth.” From Herbert L. Selesnick, Employee Participation in Industrial Training: The Impact of Changing Values within the American Workforce (Boston: Harbridge House), p. 25.
For discussion of these approaches, see The Business Sector Role in Employment Policy, A Special Report of the National Commission for Manpower Policy, Special Report No. 31 (Washington, D.C.: Gov’t. Printing Office, November 1978).
Ibid., p. 73.
General reference, Seymour Lusterman, Education in Industry (New York: Conference Board, 1977).
Stephen J. Fitzsimmons et al., “School Failures: Now and Tomorrow,” Developmental Psychology 1 (1969): 139–46.
Lorelei R. Brush, Women’s Avoidance of Mathematics (Cambridge, Mass.: Abt Books, 1979).
The basic qualifying test [Bell System Qualifying Test] is now based on an eighth grade knowledge of reading and math, and even so is failed by a high proportion of applicants. In describing the training given to entry level workers, the respondents expected employees to have basic skills — reading, verbal and math skills — but were finding many lacked them. They also assumed workers would have basic job readiness skills like punctuality but noted that special programs for training in this area were sometimes needed. One manager said that the most common problems with entry level workers were reading level, verbal and math skills, and “discipline habits” such as concentration. Few new employees were well trained in these areas. In the area of technical skill training, one manager felt there was not much more the public schools could do, since it would be difficult for them to train for specific jobs. The response of the companies to educational deficiencies of trainees is generally to adjust training materials and revise courses rather than to immediately institute remedial efforts. The companies are attempting to lower the reading level of job documents [in one case to fifth grade level] and add branches to training programs for less prepared students. They are not willing to lower the ultimate required level of job performance, so at some point it becomes uneconomical to continue to simplify and lengthen the training. The secondary public school system was generally seen as inadequate.From Athena Corporation, “Bell System Training and Public Education,” report prepared for the National Institute of Education, Washington, D.C., June 15, 1979, pp. 9, 10. In discussing the rationale for GM’s Quality of Work Life Program, a company official offered the following statement of intent: GM wants the same things society wants from the education system — people who can read, write and do math well, who have some coping skills, and an understanding of our economic system. This puts the emphasis back on the quality of education. This is what most Americans say they really expect from education. Alfred S. Warren, Jr., “Personnel Development and Education — Work Relations at General Motors,” Training and Development Journal (January 1977):9–11. From Selesnick, “Employee Participation in Industrial Training,” p. 22.
Some 35 percent of large companies with over ten thousand employees and 20 percent of smaller ones do so now according to a Conference Board report, Education in Industry, by Seymour Lusterman (New York: Conference Board, 1977).
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1981 Peter B. Doeringer
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Abt, C.C. (1981). Public Education and Industrial Training in the 1980s. In: Doeringer, P.B. (eds) Workplace Perspectives on Education and Training. Boston Studies in Applied Economics, vol 1. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-8144-7_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-8144-7_2
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-009-8146-1
Online ISBN: 978-94-009-8144-7
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive