PREPARATION FOR WORK

RESEARCH FINDING:

Business leaders report that students with solid basic skills
and positive work attitudes are more likely to find and  keep
jobs than students with vocational skills alone.

COMMENT:

As new technologies make old job skills obsolete, the best 
vocational education will be solid preparation in reading,
writing, mathematics, and reasoning.  In the future, Amer-
ican workers will acquire many of their job skills in the
workplace, not in school.  They will need to be able to mas-
ter new technologies and upgrade their skills to meet special-
ized job demands.  Men and women who have weak basic skills,
or who cannot readily master new skills to keep pace with
change, may be only marginally employed over their life-
times.

Business leaders recommend that schools raise academic stan-
dards.  They point to the need for remedial programs to help
low-achieving students and to reduce dropping out.

Business leaders stress that the school curriculum should
emphasize literacy, mathematics, and problem-solving
skills.  They believe schools should emphasize such per-
sonal qualities as self-discipline, reliability, 
perseverance, teamwork, accepting responsibility, and
respect for the rights of others.  These characteristics
will serve all secondary students well, whether they go
on to college or directly into the world of work.


Center for Public Resources. (1982). Basic Skills in the
U.S. Work Force: The Contrasting Perceptions of Business,
Labor, and Public Education. New York.

Committee for Economic Development (1985).  Investing in Our
Children:  Businesses and the Public Schools:  A
Statement. New York and Washington, D.C. 

National Academy of Science, National Academy of 
Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and Committee on
Science, Engineering and Public Policy. (1984).  High
Schools and the Changing Workplace:  The Employer's
View.  Washington, D.C.:  National Academy Press.

National Advisory Council on Vocational Education (1984).
Conference Summary: Vocational and Training Policy for Today and Tomorrow.  
Washington D.C.

Zemsky, R., and Meyerson, M. (1986).  The Training
Impulse.  New York: McGraw Hill.