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OCR for page 22
2
Education and Training
for Employment
Vocational education is defined in the Education Amendments of 1976
(P.L. 94-482) as "organized educational programs which are directly re-
lated to the preparation of individuals for paid or unpaid employment, or for
additional preparation for a career requiring other than a baccalaureate or
advanced degree" (20 U.S.C. 2461, Section 1951. That is what we mean in
this report when we use the phrase vocational education.
In some sense, however, all education can be viewed as having a
vocational component: the skills most essential to working in the majority
of jobs are also the most fundamental skills that all students should learn-
being able to read, write, speak, reason, and compute. As Ginzberg
(1982:75) 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. Most people will
work at some time during their lives, even if they do not plan to do so
immediately after high school. They should at school age be introduced to
the variety of employment options available in the American economy and
receive guidance on how to find appropriate jobs, how to apply for jobs,
how to behave in a work setting, and how to upgrade their skills if they need
to.
In this chapter we describe vocational education as it exists in the early
1980s-its programs, students, schools, and the administrative arrange-
ments supporting it. We then review evaluations of vocational education
22
OCR for page 23
Education and Training for Employment
23
programs at the secondary and postsecondary levels, paying particular
attention to their effects on the employability of graduates. We also briefly
consider evaluations of the Job Corps, a federal program for disadvantaged
people that includes a large training component; the Youth Incentive
Entitlement Pilot Projects, which combine education and employment to
help disadvantaged young people; and 70001 Ltd., a largely private effort to
train and place disadvantaged young people in private-sector jobs. We
identify characteristics that are associated with program success and effec-
tiveness. Finally, we discuss the question of access to vocational education
in order to determine whether those people who might otherwise have
difficulty getting good education and training, and subsequently getting
good jobs, can enroll and participate in beneficial vocational education
programs.
VOCATIONAL EDUCATION IN THE 1980S
Vocational education provides occupational training to millions of people
in many different types of educational institutions across the United States.
In 1980-1981 (the most recent period for which data are available), the
National Center for Education Statistics estimated that 16.9 millions people
were enrolled in vocational education programs supported in part by the
Vocational Education Act of 1963 as amended (Table 64. About 10.5
million students were enrolled in high-school courses or programs and
about 6.4 million were in postsecondary or adult education courses or
programs. (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. Of
the 16.9 million vocational students, about 5.8 million were enrolled in
programs designed to train individuals for specific occupations. Occupa-
tionally specific programs are offered in grades 11 and 12 as well as in
postsecondary and adult education schools.
~ This figure does not include students enrolled in the many institutions that are privately
controlled. Including those students raises the total to nearly 19 million. However, informa-
tion on students in programs not supported by the Vocational Education Act is sparse and is
not included in our discussion.
OCR for page 24
24
EDUCATION FOR TOMORROW'S JOBS
TABLE 6 Enrollments in Vocational Education Programs and
Occupationally Specific Vocational Education Programs, by Program
Area and Level, 1980-1981 (Numbers in Thousands)
Postsecondary
Program AreaTotalSecondaryand Adult
All programs16,86110,4666,396
Agriculture883664179
Distribution930378551
Health occupations950192757
Nonoccupational
home economics3,1892,550640
Occupational
home economics574377197
Industrial arts1,9001,8945
Office occupations3,6152,0811,534
Technical50634472
Trade and industrial3,2221,3441,877
Other1,134952182
All occupationally
specific programs5,7932,8582,935
Agriculture37630473
Distribution560287273
Health occupations45596359
Occupational
home economics25616789
Office occupations1,9691,043925
Technical38920369
Trade and industrial1,728904825
Other603723
NOTE: Occupationally specific enrollments include students above grade 10 enrolled in
programs designed to train individuals for specific occupations.
SOURCE: National Center for Education Statistics, Vocational Education Data System,
unpublished data.
Programs
The vocational education programs supported with federal funds cover
education in the following categories identified by the U. 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 nonoc-
cupational), marketing and distribution, technical occupations, and trade
and industrial occupations. Typical areas of study in these programs are
listed opposite. Industrial arts, which is not included in the list, is not an
OCR for page 25
Education and Training for Employment
25
Typical Areas of Study Under Eight Vocational Education Program Areas
AgriculturelAgribusiness and Natural Resources Education
Agricultural production, supplies and services, mechanics, products; horticulture; conserva-
tion and regulation; fishing and fisheries; forestry production and processing.
Business and Office Education
Accounting, bookkeeping; banking; business data processing; office supervision and man-
agement; personnel and training; secretarial; typing.
Health Occupations Education
Dental services; diagnostic and treatment services; medical laboratory technologies; mental
health/human services; allied health services; nursing-related services; ophthalmic services;
rehabilitation services.
Home Economics Education
Interior design; consumer and homemaking home economics (nonoccupational); child care
and guidance management, and services; clothing, apparel, textiles management and produc-
tion; food production, management, and services; home furnishings and equipment manage-
ment, and production; institutional, home management, and supporting services.
Marketing and Distributive Education
Institutional management; marketing management and research; real estate; small business
management and ownership; entrepreneurship; marketing of apparel and accessories, busi-
ness and personal services, financial services, floristry, farm and garden supplies, food,
home and office products, hospitality and recreation, insurance, transportation and travel,
vehicles and petroleum, advertising.
Technical Education
Communication technologies; computer and information sciences; architectural, civil, elec-
trical and electronic, environmental control, industrial production, quality control and safety,
mechanical, and mining and petroleum technologies; biological, nuclear, and physical
science technologies; fire protection; air and water transportation; graphic arts technology.
Trade and Industrial Education
Drycleaning and laundering services; brickmasonry, stonemasonry; carpentry; plumbing,
pipefitting, and steamfitting; electrical and electronics equipment repair; heating, aircondi-
tioning, and refrigeration mechanics; industrial equipment maintenance; drafting; graphic
and printing communications; leatherworking and upholstering; precision food production;
precision metal work; woodworking; vehicle and equipment operation.
SOURCE: National Occupational Information Coordinating Committee (1982).
occupationally specific program but includes courses surveying occupa-
tions as well as metalworking and woodworking shop.
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 vocation-
al education students are enrolled (Table 64. This pair of programs domi-
nates enrollments at all levels.
At the secondary level the largest programs overall are nonoccupational
home economics and trade and industrial programs. Young women in high
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26
EDUCATION FOR TOMORROW'S JOBS
school enroll predominantly in health, nonoccupational and occupational
home economics, and business and office programs. Young men in high
school enroll predominantly in agriculture, industrial arts, technical, and
trade and industrial programs. At the postsecondary and adult levels, the
programs with the largest enrollments are business and office and trade and
industrial programs.
Members of minority groups enroll mainly in nonoccupational and occu-
pational home economics and business and office programs areas tradi-
tionally dominated by women. They also enroll, in moderately high num-
bers relative to their proportion in the population, in trade and industrial
programs, an area traditionally dominated by men.
Vocational education programs generally start at the high-school level.
However, career education, introduced 10-15 years ago, begins in kinder-
garten (see Bell and Hoyt, 19741. Where such programs are offered,
elementary-school children are exposed to information about different sorts
of jobs and careers with the intention that they begin early to think about
them. Presumably with the help of guidance counselors, they can start to see
the relationship between their school studies and jobs they might later take.
Students who are not academically inclined might become interested in
schoolwork in this way, becoming convinced of its importance and rel-
evance; they then may be motivated to learn the basic skills they will later
need. Worthington (1981, 1982) notes that emphasis on prevocational
guidance and career exploration is important at the elementary-school level
to provide both vocational and nonvocational students with the information
necessary to make realistic career and education choices.
Work Experience
Another aspect of vocational education involves work experience. Two
types of work experience programs are supported in part by federal funds:
work-study and cooperative education programs. 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. Students in these programs
work for the local education agency or for another public or nonprofit
private organization, not for private-sector, profit-making employers. Stu-
dents are paid with vocational education funds, not funds from the employ-
ers. The intent of the program seems to be much more to provide students
the opportunity to work for pay than to increase their work experience or
work skills.
The second of the federal programs providing work experience and the
OCR for page 27
Education and Training for Employment
27
much larger of the two is cooperative vocational education, which is
intended to provide supervised work experience that is related to a student's
school program. In the 1979-1980 school year, over 520,000 high-school
students were enrolled in cooperative education programs (U.S. Depart-
ment of Education, 19811. Cooperative education is not a program in the
sense that agriculture or marketing and distribution is, but rather an arrange-
ment, plan, or a method of instruction that can be applied in any occupation-
ally specific program. In cooperative education, written agreements are
made between the school and the employer regarding planned and school-
supervised employment of vocational education students. The students hold
paying jobs at the employer's place of business and also participate in
classroom instruction relating to their occupational experience. Compensa-
tion is scaled either to the minimum-wage laws or to a student-learner rate
established by the U.S. Department of Labor. 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 unemploy-
ment.
Cooperative education is designed to offer considerable benefits to par-
ticipating students in addition to the wages that they earn on the job (U.S.
Department of Education, 1981~. The intended benefits include an oppor-
tunity to try working in an occupation before taking a full-time job, facilitat-
ing the transition from school to work, fulfilling personal needs and goals,
acquiring appropriate work habits and job skills, and establishing an em-
ployment record. Employers benefit from cooperative arrangements be-
cause they gain access to a pool of potential employees who can be trained at
relatively low cost and who can be observed at work before a job offer is
made. Schools may save money they would otherwise have to spend on
equipment with which to train students, and by careful scheduling they may
be able to enroll more students than they could if all students were in school
full time.
Apprenticeship training is one of the oldest, and many say one of the best,
methods of providing training for many skilled occupations. Apprentice-
ship programs provide specialized training in a skilled trade, craft, or
occupation and on-thejob training. They are generally run jointly by
employers and unions. Apprentices are taught a variety of skills so that they
can move with relative ease within a set of related occupations. Apprentice-
ship offers several advantages for the young people who are able to enroll-
they earn money while in training, they learn by doing, and they have direct
contact with employers and regular workers at the work site while they are
learning.
The Smith-Hughes Act of 1917, which commenced the federal role in
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28
EDUCATION FOR TOMORROW'S JOBS
vocational education, also provided partial reimbursement from federal
funds for teachers of related training in apprenticeship programs. The
Bureau of Apprenticeship and Training in the U.S. Department of Labor
registers apprenticeship programs that meet certain standards, which, for
example, set the minimum age of apprentices at 16 years; prohibit dis-
crimination 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 appren-
tices, 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 apprentice-
ship programs. Currently the most common arrangement requires that
people work and train as apprentices for a specified period of time, after
which they become journeymen.
Since the 1960s, apprenticeship programs have been criticized for dis-
criminating against women and members of minority groups. Federal
regulations to promote equal opportunity in the programs have reportedly
resulted in gains for blacks in the construction trades (Grover, 1982), but
membership in the construction unions has changed more slowly and the
representation of minority group members in apprenticeship programs
varies considerably by trade. The situation regarding women is different
because, with the exception of cosmetology, apprenticeship training is
generally available only in jobs traditionally held by men. Glover reports
that some progress has been made in the enrollment of women in appren-
ticeship programs across the trades but that data on their retention and
completion are not yet sufficient to judge the success of the affirmative
action efforts.
There is also criticism that apprenticeship programs are too long and that
too few have the flexibility to give apprentices credit for previous work or
education. Some unions are working to modify apprenticeship systems so
that completion of these programs should be determined on the basis of
competency rather than time; progress toward this goal is slowed by
competing demands for the personnel and financial resources necessary to
make the required changes.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated that almost 324,000 people
were enrolled in apprenticeship programs at the end of 1979. An Office of
Technology Assessment report (1983) cited unpublished BLS figures
showing a steady decline in enrollments to a level of 287,000 in 1982. The
report attributes the decline to reductions in public and private funding
rather than to declining interest in apprenticeship programs. They also note
that economic conditions in the industries that cosponsor the programs may
also have contributed to the decline.
OCR for page 29
Education and Training for Employment
Students
29
How do high-school vocational students compare with students enrolled in
general or academic (college preparatory) high-school programs? Accord-
ing to the National Center for Education Statistics ~ 1981), they are more like
the students in general programs than those in academic programs. Their
fathers tend to have lower educational attainment than the fathers of aca-
demic students. They tend to score lower on standardized achievement tests
than do academic students. They also tend to work more outside school
during their school years than do academic students. Their work is related to
their studies more often than is the after-school work of academic students.
As an explanation of the comparatively low scholastic abilities and
socioeconomic status of vocational education students in secondary
schools, Evans (1981) notes that high-school vocational education attracts
those students who are not interested in or who are rejected by college
preparatory programs. If vocational education is serving the populations
identified by Congress, its students would indeed be expected to have lower
scores on standardized ability tests and lower socioeconomic status than
those high-school students planning to go to college.
Meyer (198 la, 198 lb) found that blacks and Hispanics, on the average,
take more vocational education in high school than do whites. However,
among individuals with comparable scores on standardized achievement
tests and with comparable levels of parental income and education, blacks
and Hispanics in high school take far less vocational education than whites.
This finding is consistent with the finding that among people with compara-
ble scores on standardized achievement tests, blacks are more likely than
whites to go to college (Meyer, 1981c; Meyer and Wise, 1982a, 1982b).
Vocational programs at the postsecondary level tend to serve a more
heterogeneous clientele than at the high-school level. In public and private
noncollegiate postsecondary schools, about 20 percent of the students are
over 30 years of age. Proportionately more female than male students are
under 20 years of age, and slightly more are between ages 35 and 39. Nearly
all vocational students (91.7 percent) who are enrolled in postsecondary
noncollegiate schools have completed high school, and some (27.7 percent)
have some postsecondary education or even an associate or baccalaureate
degree (National Center for Education Statistics, 19814.
Schools
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, almost 28,000
public and private institutions across the country offer vocational educa-
tion. These include public comprehensive and vocational high schools,
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30
EDUCATION FOR TOMORROW'S JOBS
public area vocational centers at the high-school level, private high schools,
public and private noncollegiate postsecondary schools, correspondence
schools, two- and four-year colleges and universities, and state correctional
facilities. Nearly two-thirds of the schools are at the secondary level, most
of them public high schools. 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. The
National Center for Education Statistics (1981:3) defines a comprehensive
high school as "a general high school offering programs in both vocational
and general academic subjects, but in which the majority of the students are
not enrolled in programs of vocational education." A vocational high
school is defined as "a specialized secondary school that offers a full-time
program of study in both academic and vocational subjects and in which all
or a majority of the students are enrolled in vocational education programs."
An area vocational center is a secondary-level "shared-time facility that
provides instruction only in vocational education to students from through-
out a school system or region. Students attending an area vocational center
receive the academic portion of their education program in regular high
schools or other institutions."
In site visits to seven large cities, Benson and Hoachlander (1981) found
that specialized schools such as vocational high schools and area vocational
centers are popular with students and offer programs of generally higher
quality than comprehensive high schools. They note that this may be caused
in part by the decay of and violence in inner-city comprehensive high
schools, which these students would otherwise attend. They also note that
the specialized schools attract highly qualified students, many of whom go
on to college. Admission to some specialized schools is highly competitive,
and some of them require admission tests.
In some cities there is rivalry between the shared-time vocational schools
and the comprehensive high schools (Benson and Hoachlander, 19811.
Administrators of comprehensive schools are sometimes reluctant to let
students take their vocational courses in shared-time facilities because they
fear the loss of revenue. They may lose support directly, if resources are
allocated by the numbers of students in a school (capitation funding), or
indirectly by reductions of staff no longer needed to teach vocational
courses. Benson and Hoachlander also observed in inner cities what is true
of vocational programs across the country: Some programs have kept pace
with technological advances and benefited thereby, while others are ill-
equipped, understaffed, and poorly matched to the labor market. They
OCR for page 31
Education arid Training for Employment
31
concluded that the local economy is a determining factor in the success of
vocational programs in placing students in jobs, suggesting that placement
rates are not always the best measure of success of vocational programs.
Where are the institutions that offer vocational education? About 60
percent of the secondary schools offering five or more vocational programs
were located in areas with populations under 100,000 (U.S. Department of
Health, Education, and Welfare, 19781; only about 27 percent of the
population lives in such areas. The distribution of postsecondary institu-
tions is more even with respect to population density. From this information
it is not safe to conclude, however, that small towns and rural areas are
oversupplied with vocational schools and centers. Evans (1981) states that
residents of rural areas seldom have access to vocational education for a
large variety of occupations. Their high schools most often offer programs
only in agriculture, business, and nonoccupational home economics.
Rosenfeld (1981) notes that rural schools also cannot afford to offer pro-
grams that require expensive equipment. With cautions about economies of
scale and lower pay scales in rural areas, he notes that on the average rural
school districts spend less per pupil than urban school districts. He con-
cludes that vocational education, because of its demands for relatively high
expenditures and for flexibility to adapt to the changing labor market, is
extremely limited in rural settings.
Similarly, community colleges in sparsely populated areas do not offer as
great a diversity of programs as do those in urban areas. Obviously, sparsely
populated areas cannot take advantage of economies of scale in providing
educational opportunities to their residents in the same way as large metro-
politan areas. Rural areas need to have more schools to serve fewer people
and cannot support a large diversity of programs. Area or regional vocation-
al schools or centers are often found in sparsely populated areas, serving
several towns or communities in a relatively large geographical area.
Teachers
In 1978 there were more than 354,000 vocational education teachers at the
secondary, postsecondary, and adult levels (National Center for Education
Statistics, 19811. This figure represents an increase of more than 50 percent
since 1972, reflecting the growth of vocational education programs and
enrollments in that period. In 1978 nearly half these teachers (47 percent)
taught at the secondary level, almost 20 percent taught at the postsecondary
level, and about 32 percent taught at the adult level.
At the postsecondary and adult levels a larger portion of the teachers
teach only part time, compared with those in high schools. The National
Center for Education Statistics (1981) estimates full-time-equivalent posi
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32
EDUCATION FOR TOMORROW'S JOBS
lions by assigning a value of one-third to part-time teachers. At the second-
ary level, using full-time equivalents reduces the estimate of teaching staff
to 84 percent of the total number of full- and part-time teachers for the
1978-1979 school year. At the postsecondary level the percentage is about
70 percent, and at the adult level it is about 43 percent. On the basis of these
figures, one can compute the percentages of the part-time teaching staff at
each level: secondary, 24 percent; postsecondary, 45 percent; and adult, 85
percent. Many of the part-time teachers hold regular positions in private
industry (U. S. Department of Education, 19811.
Part-time teachers usually have contracts to teach certain courses, and
most often these contracts are renewed yearly. By contrast, full-time
teachers at all levels derive job security by attaining tenure. Regardless of
the benefits of the tenure system, the fact that most high-school vocational
education teachers are full-time employees, many of whom have tenure,
reduces the flexibility of the secondary schools. In order to adapt vocational
education programs and staff to changing occupations, high schools must
rely much more on retraining their currently employed teachers than on
getting rid of teachers with obsolete or unneeded skills and hiring teachers
with the needed skills.
Administration
The public schools that provide vocational education are governed and
operated by states and localities, but they are affected by federal as well as
state and local policies. The final report of a study of vocational education
by the National Institute of Education ( 1981 ) gives a detailed description of
administrative arrangements, funding patterns, and federal priorities.
Several points from that report that are particularly relevant to our study are
outlined in this section.
The federal role in vocational education is defined largely by the Voca-
tional Education Act of 1963 as amended. The amendments of 1976 contain
explicit expressions of federal priorities for vocational education programs.
They emphasize overcoming sex-role stereotyping in education and em-
ployment and serving certain groups better American Indians, dis-
advantaged students in areas with high youth unemployment and school
dropout rates, and bilingual students. The legislation authorized funds for
remodeling or renovating facilities as well as constructing residential
schools in urban and rural areas that are unable to undertake such projects on
their own. 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. Provision is made for collecting data on programs and
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36
EDUCATION FOR TOMORROW'S JOBS
counseling for students and in-service training of teachers, for example) is
used for improvement, and states generally provide more money for
supportive services than for program improvement.
Overall federal funds account for about 10 percent of the total expended
for vocational education throughout the country; the remaining 90 percent is
supplied by state and local sources. However, the ratio of federal to state
and local funds varies considerably by the purposes or uses of the funds. 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 fund-
ing, 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. Vocational program
funding at the postsecondary level is most often more flexible and can take
into account factors that affect program costs.
EVALUATIONS OF VOCATIONAL EDUCATION
How effective has vocational education been? A number of studies, some of
them quite ambitious, have addressed this question and are reviewed in this
section. But before we look in any detail at those results, there is a larger
question to consider: How effective is American secondary education? The
decline in the scores on college entrance examinations since the mid- 1960s
has been well documented and publicized (College Entrance Examination
Board, 19771. Only in the last two years has the decline slowed or perhaps
begun to reverse itself (Washington Post, September 22, 1982, A34.
Data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress deepen the
worries about the quality of the high-school education this country's young
people receive. Gadway and Wilson ~ 1976) reported that 8 percent of white
high-school students and an astonishing 42 percent of black students could
be considered functionally illiterate. Martin ~ 1981 ~ summarized the results
for the 1970s: While some gains were made by 9-year-olds, the results for
17-year-olds showed declines in mathematical skills, reading comprehen-
sion, and knowledge about science and social studies over the decade of the
1970s. These data support complaints by employers and college teachers
about the lack of basic skills of America's high-school graduates in recent
years. It seems that while the nation's elementary schools are doing as well
as or even slightly better than in the recent past, the high schools are not
preparing young people adequately for further schooling or for work. It is
little wonder, then, that vocational education at the high-school level has
become involved in concerns over teaching basic skills. There continues to
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Education and Training for Employment
37
be some tension between teachers of vocational education and teachers of
general education over who should be responsible for providing remedia-
tion in the basic skills for vocational education students. All agree, how-
ever, that all high-school graduates need to have mastered the basic skills.
Vocational Education Programs
Most detailed studies of the effects of secondary vocational education show
wide variation in the effectiveness of programs. Meyer (1981d) found no
net increase in lifetime economic benefits across all programs. He did find,
however, that some programs seem to give participants some advantage the
first eight years after high-school graduation. Participation in business or
of fice courses tends to raise the income of women during the first eight years
after graduation but does not seem to have similar positive effects on the
income of men. Enrollment in trade and industrial programs tends to
generate initial gains in income for men following high-school graduation.
The positive effects of office programs for women and of trade and in-
dustrial programs for men decline after the first few years. Course work in
nonoccupational home economics is associated with a significant decrease
in income for women in the eight years following high-school graduation,
but there is no evidence that this is a causal effect (Meyer, 1981d).
The National Institute of Education (1981) concludes that there is in-
sufficient evidence to support a conclusive statement regarding the effec-
tiveness of nonoccupational home economics education. A few studies
cited in that report do indicate that students' knowledge increases after they
have taken specific home economics courses; however, since the courses
are explicitly nonoccupational, no measures relating program completion to
economic or occupational results are cited.
Grasso and Shea ~ 1979a, 1979b) present evidence that vocational educa-
tion tends to decrease high-school dropout rates, thereby potentially giving
participants the long-term economic benefits associated with a high-school
diploma. 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.
Summarizing findings from many evaluations of vocational education,
Lewis and Mertens report mixed but generally positive findings regarding
the effectiveness of secondary vocational education in reducing unemploy-
ment, generally positive findings regarding whether graduates found em-
ployment related to their training, but inconclusive and even contradictory
findings regarding the earnings and occupational status of graduates.
A comprehensive study evaluating the effectiveness of secondary-school
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38
EDUCATION FOR TOMORROW'S JOBS
vocational education in placing graduates in jobs related to their training
was conducted by McKinney et al. (19811. The research was based on
literature reviews, analysis of existing data, case studies in 7 states, and a
mail questionnaire received from over 5,000 people in 62 local education
agencies in the 7 states. The report stressed the importance of vocational
educators administrators, counselors, and teachers working to help
place graduating students in jobs related to their training. Additional factors
that seem to distinguish successful programs from others include participa-
tion of students in vocational education student organizations, students'
mastery of basic educational skills, and the appropriateness of the curricu-
lum to the employment opportunities in the area.
A recent report from the National Center for Research in Vocational
Education (Gardner et al., 1982) examined employment experiences
associated with different concentrations of participation in high-school
vocational education programs. Unlike most earlier evaluations, the report
considered whether students had enrolled in extensive vocational programs
or just in a few vocational education courses. Gardner and his colleagues
also examined intervening factors, such as the methods of job search used,
unionization, type of industry and occupation, and job tenure, which could
affect earnings and could differ between vocational education graduates and
others. 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 edu-
cation for men and women to the different labor markets into which they
move. Women who concentrate in vocational education in high school tend
to go on to postsecondary schools less often than men. Concentrating in
vocational education tends to help women more than men in moving into
higher-paying jobs than those held by others of the same sex without
vocational training. Vocational graduates tend to work longer hours and for
more weeks per year than others, a fact that helps account for their higher
average annual earnings.
A survey of manufacturers' views of vocational education was conducted
by the National Association of Manufacturers (Nunez and Russell, 19811.
The findings must be interpreted with extreme caution because less than 40
percent of the manufacturers polled responded to the survey, and the report
gives no information on which to judge the nature and extent of response
bias. Over half the respondents indicated that their companies had benefited
from vocational education, and about 60 percent said that graduates of
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Education and Training for Employment
39
vocational programs needed less training than did other new employees in
similar jobs. In general, vocational education is more highly regarded in
companies that are currently involved in collaborative projects with voca-
tional education. 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.
There are far fewer studies of postsecondary vocational education, but
they show somewhat more impressive, positive results, especially for
blacks and for some program areas. Both Mertens et al. (1980) and the
National Institute of Education study (1980) found lower rates of unem-
ployment for graduates of postsecondary programs in business occupations,
trade and industry, and technical areas than for people in nonvocational
postsecondary programs or those with no postsecondary education. These
two studies also showed that graduates of postsecondary programs are more
likely than graduates of secondary programs to find employment related to
their training. In general, studies of the earnings of postsecondary vocation-
al education graduates have been inconclusive. Grasso and Shea's planning
paper for the National Institute of Education study ~ 1979a) reported benefits
for postsecondary vocational graduates, but Mertens et al. (19803 con-
cluded there was insufficient evidence to draw conclusions.
A word of caution regarding the results of evaluations of vocational
education is in order. Vocational education is provided in many different
institutional settings under a rather loosely coordinated system of control.
The quality of programs and intensity of instruction vary considerably, even
within a given occupational field. Many evaluations of vocational educa-
tion, in which earnings of graduates of vocational programs are compared
with earnings of control groups, do not seek to distinguish between the
returns for the stronger and weaker programs. One exception is a study
conducted by the National Commission for Employment Policy ~ 1981). In
that study, economic returns to graduates of area vocational schools or
centers, which are generally assumed to be in the stronger set, were found to
be higher than returns to graduates of vocational education programs in
comprehensive high schools. Distinctions among programs are also made
in several studies cited here (Meyer, 1981d; Meyer and Wise, 1982a,
1982b). Failure to account for differences in program quality, which results
in showing only modest economic gains for all programs taken together, is a
reason to question whether the evaluation studies estimate accurately the
returns to the better-trained graduates.
The findings of evaluation studies may also be rendered somewhat
ambiguous by the fact that some unknown proportion of vocational students
enroll in vocational courses or programs for nonoccupational reasons to
learn how to run a household or to do electrical work, for example. These
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people may enter the labor force looking for work intentionally unrelated to
their vocational education. We do not judge whether the development of
avocational skills is an appropriate use of public funds, but the fact that
vocational education serves this dual function renders evaluation of eco-
nomic returns difficult.
Most of the evaluation studies focus on benefits accruing to graduates of
vocational programs to assess the worth of vocational education. However,
as Grubb (1979) notes, employers are often the primary beneficiary, since
they can shift some of the costs of training employees (even in firm-specific
skills) onto government. Thus, ignoring benefits to employers underesti-
mates the value of vocational programs.
Other Training Programs
Assessment of the nature and effectiveness of several other employment
training programs is relevant to the committee's work because of the
emphasis they give to training their participants. 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), 19821. The Job Training Partnership Act, which continues
the support of the Job Corps, emphasizes training in its other programs as
well.
The Job Corps is a federally funded program aimed at reducing unem-
ployment among disadvantaged, unemployed, out-of-school young people
ages 16-21. The Job Corps was originally established under the Economic
Opportunity Act of 1964; later it was supported under Title IV of the
Comprehensive Employment and Training Act of 1973. It operates about
100 residential training centers in which participants receive remedial
education in the basic skills, vocational training, support services such as
health care, and general preparation for work. A number of different
organizations become involved in various aspects of the Job Corps pro-
gram. International unions participate in recruiting, placing, and training
participants. Employment services work in recruiting and placing partici-
pants. Local schools train participants under contract to the Job Corps
centers. And volunteer or community-based organizations work to recruit
and place participants in jobs and also to provide support services to them.
More quantitative data are available on the Job Corps than on most other
federal training programs for disadvantaged people (Bendick, 19821.
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Probably the most robust evaluations of the Job Corps have been conducted
by Mallar and his associates (1978, 19801. The first evaluation (Mallar et
al., 1978), 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.
The second evaluation (Mallar et al., 1 980), which followed participants
for two years, showed an increase in the amount of employment, earnings,
military enlistment, and the probability of getting a high-school diploma
and a reduction in reliance on public assistance, such as unemployment
insurance. These results seem even more impressive when one remembers
that the Job Corps serves severely disadvantaged people-those most in
need of help and those least likely to make similar attainments without such
assistance. The notable success of the program is attributed largely to its
emphasis on training and its provision of a supportive environment for
participants.
70001 Ltd. is a nationwide private enterprise (which has received some
money from CETA) that has grown from a privately funded project in
Delaware in 1969. 70001 Ltd. serves high-school dropouts in 45 communi-
ties across the country. The participants, who have been screened on the
basis of abilities and attitudes, agree to work toward specific individual
goals. They are given a 2- to 5-week period of training in work habits and
attitudes and job-seeking skills. Participants are encouraged to work toward
a general educational development certificate. They participate in a national
youth organization associated with 70001 Ltd., modeled after the Distribu-
tive Education Clubs of America (an organization for vocational education
students), which provides peer-group and motivational support. The train-
ing for 70001 Ltd. programs is usually conducted by community-based
organizations with assistance from the national 70001 Ltd. office.
A coordinator, determining that individual participants are ready for
employment, arranges job interviews for appropriate occupations with
private-sector employers. Coordinators try to ensure a good match between
jobs and participants. The youth organization associated with 70001 Ltd.
provides recognition for educational and occupational achievements,
teaches organizational and leadership skills, and helps participants develop
a sense of career and community awareness and responsibility.
Evaluations show generally positive results, including gains in earnings
for 70001 Ltd. participants. An evaluation by Public/Private Ventures
found that gains in earnings actually increased over time rather than declin-
ing, as is usually the case with such programs (Sullivan, 19834. About
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three-quarters of the enrollees complete the program, and about three-
quarters of those who complete the program are placed in unsubsidized jobs
in the private sector.
Another federally funded program is the Youth Incentive Entitlement
Pilot Projects (YIEPP) demonstration, which was authorized by the Youth
Employment and Demonstration Projects Act of 1977. This program com-
bined education and work in order to help reduce youth unemployment, to
increase labor force participation, and to reduce school dropout rates of
teenagers. The target population was people ages 16-19 from low-income
or welfare households who had not graduated from high school. The
program offered each participant a guaranteed job at the federal minimum
wage, part-time during the school year and full-time during the summer,
provided the participant remained in or returned to school or worked toward
a general education development certificate. Continuing participation in the
program was contingent on maintaining both school and work performance
standards. The program subsidized the jobs of participants, usually at a rate
of 100 percent. At two sites, subsidies of 75 and 50 percent were tried to test
the effects of varying subsidy levels on employers' willingness to partici-
pate. Participation of private-sector employers was found to be highly
dependent on the level of subsidy offered. Employers were about four times
more likely to participate with a 100 percent subsidy than with a 50 percent
subsidy.
The YIEPP demonstration program began in spring 1978 and ended
full-scale operations in August 1980. Over 76,000 young people partici-
pated in the program at 17 sites across the nation operated by competitively
selected CETA prime sponsors. The program was evaluated by the Man-
power Demonstration Research Corporation, which has issued a series of
reports on the program. Two are of particular relevance to the current study
(Diaz et al., 1982; Parkas et al., 19821. Selected findings of those evalua-
tion reports are presented here. In general, the prime sponsors were able to
secure jobs for all participants, but they did have some difficulty at a rural
site in Mississippi. Overall the quality of the work experiences of the
participants was judged adequate or better, meaning that the young people
were kept busy, that they were held to their performance standards, that
they received adequate supervision, that their work was varied, and that
there was a low ratio of participants to supervisors. The quality of the work
experience did not vary substantially among the private, public, and private
nonprofit sectors.
Establishing and enforcing school performance standards for participants
proved difficult and time consuming. However, anecdotal evidence sug-
gests that enforcement of the standards gave the program needed credibility
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Education and Training for Employment
43
among school administrators. It also was used in several instances to effect
the provision of educational remediation when students' performance de-
clined. In general, cooperation between the schools and prime sponsors was
good. Schools complied with monitoring requirements; they effectively
recruited students for participation; and, as best they could, they provided
flexible scheduling of classes to accommodate students' work schedules.
Application and participation rates in YIEPP were high, indicating the
eagerness of disadvantaged young people to obtain minimum-wage jobs,
even though that also meant adhering to performance standards and either
going to school or pursuing an equivalency certificate. Of those who had
heard about the program, about 80 percent had applied, and about 56
percent of those eligible at the beginning of the program had participated by
its termination. Participation rates at the end of the program were 22 percent
for whites, 38 percent for Hispanics, and 63 percent for blacks. Diaz et al.
(1982) hypothesized that the greater participation rates for black and His-
panic young people may be attributable to the limited employment opportu-
nities for them in the unsubsidized labor market. Analyses of youth employ-
ment data by Borus (1983) suggest such a limitation for black young people,
particularly in jobs paying the federal minimum wage.
A Congressional Budget Of flee study ~ 1982), citing Stromsdorfer ~ 1979)
and Taggart (1981), draws five major conclusions regarding a variety of
employment and training programs for disadvantaged young people. First,
considerable gains in employability can be made by young people who
participate in programs offering remedial education, training, and well-
structured 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. Second,
success in the workplace seems to be closely related to competence in the
basic skills of reading, writing, speaking, and computing. Based on their
analysis of data from the National Longitudinal Surveys of 1972 High
School Seniors, Meyer and Wise ~ 1982a) draw similar conclusions regard-
ing the importance of basic skills. Third, work experience alone, even when
well supervised and highly supportive, does not appear to improve the
employability of disadvantaged young people. To be effective, work expe-
rience must be combined with other services, such as skill training and
placement services. Fourth, to be effective, programs must be well man-
aged, and participants who do not conform to minimal standards of be-
havior should not be allowed to continue in the programs. Fifth, placement
services and training in how to look for a job seem to increase the short-term
employability of program participants. The work of Gardner et al. (1982)
confirms this fifth conclusion for vocational education high-school graduates.
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We conclude, therefore, that there is ample evidence that well-
constructed training programs-ones that ensure a firm grounding in the
basic skills, that provide supervised work experience, and that provide
sufficient motivation for participants to complete the programs (usually
through work experience)-offer promise for improving the employability
of disadvantaged young people. We can infer that dislocated workers who
participate in programs offering the same elements, though perhaps with
different emphases, would profit similarly.
ACCESS TO VOCATIONAL EDUCATION PROGRAMS
A major concern that shaped the 1976 reauthorization of the Vocational
Education Act of 1963 was ensuring access to vocational education pro-
grams for those individuals who were likely to have trouble getting a job
without that training or support, especially those people living in places
with high unemployment rates or other indications of economic need.
Congress wanted to ensure, first, that there were good vocational education
programs in places where people were in particular need of training and,
second, that those people who needed the training could enroll in programs
likely to improve their employment prospects. Thus we examine two
aspects of access to programs: first, the distribution of funds to localities in
greatest apparent need, and second, enrollment in high-quality programs.
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 con-
cerns. Even in the seven states in which federal funds were directed
properly to local education agencies with below-average relative financial
ability (i.e., property value per unit of average daily school attendance),
above-average unemployment rates, and above-average concentrations of
low-income families, the pattern was not consistent across areas. The six
states studied at the postsecondary level did not consistently allocate funds
according to the criteria set by the federal government.
Benson and Hoachlander (1981) studied enrollment patterns as well as
the distribution of funds. They reported that women are concentrated in
vocational programs that rank low in employment opportunities and aver-
age expected wages. The same pattern holds, though much less strongly,
for members of minority groups. They concluded that, in large cities,
access to high-quality vocational education programs for various target
groups-minorities, women, people with handicapping conditions, eco-
nomically disadvantaged people, and students with limited English
proficiency is often limited.
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They cited four reasons for this limited access. First, some of the
programs are geographically isolated; programs may be offered in facilities
far from the neighborhoods in which members of minority groups or
disadvantaged students live. Second, limitations may be placed on program
enrollments. The combination of insufficient funds to expand programs and
intense competition for the most popular programs may tend to exclude
students who do not possess the basic skills needed and virtually to elimi-
nate the incentives for the programs to offer remedial education. Some-
times, too, program enrollment is restricted to match labor market demand.
Third, program admission requirements may exclude proportionately more
disadvantaged students, even though this exclusion may be unintentional.
Admission requirements may include scores on standardized ability or
intelligence tests, grade point average, school attendance record, and per-
sonal characteristics. Some programs may also require certain course work.
Fourth, perceived restrictions in job entry may deter some students from
applying to some programs. For example, female, black, or Hispanic
students may avoid programs leading to careers in which they see that
employers seldom hire others like themselves. This avoidance, of course,
perpetuates the problem of underrepresentation of those groups in those
occupations.
As we observed earlier, it is not just large cities that face difficulties in
offering enough good programs to students. The provision of a variety of
high-quality programs in rural areas is also very difficult because sparsely
populated areas cannot take advantage of economies of scale in establishing
and operating programs (Rosenfeld, 19811.
CONCLUSION
We conclude this chapter as others who have studied education have
done-with a mixture of optimism and grave concern. 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.
As this chapter notes, entry into the most effective vocational programs is
highly competitive. Those students who have not mastered the basic educa-
tional skills or who have not developed disciplined work habits cannot
compete effectively for places in the programs. Because of the high demand
for places, high-quality vocational programs have no incentives to offer
remedial education to students who need it. Those students may have to rely
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on generally effective but expensive programs like the Job Corps or 70001
Ltd. for their second chance.
From our reviews of vocational education programs and other employ-
ment training programs and from our collective experience with various
aspects of such programs, we conclude that fundamental changes are
needed to improve some vocational education programs to a significant
degree. Those programs generally regarded as being most in need of
improvement are often in public comprehensive high schools, and it is there
that we concentrate our attention. We believe that those programs could be
improved dramatically by strengthening the teaching staff and by increasing
the flexibility of funding arrangements. We believe these changes, put
forward in Chapter 4, are both desirable and possible, but we fully acknowl-
edge that some of them will require enormous changes in institutions not
noted for their willingness to change. Adoption of our recommendations
will require considerable courage but should result in substantial improve-
ment in educational and ultimately in employment opportunities for Amer-
ica'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. This is the oldest and perhaps the best
reason for collaboration between vocational education and business and
industry, which is the subject of the next chapter.
Representative terms from entire chapter:
work experience
