"The Forgotten Half" of Employment Training Policy:
The Demand Side
A Forum — April 21, 1995
Thomas J. Smith, Vice President of Public/Private Ventures (P/PV), noted that employment programs typically produce different results for different populations. While programs often satisfy the needs of adults, youth regularly experience disappointing outcomes. This is because attempts to promote youth employment policy are "Very much on the side of preparing workers . . . [since] . . . public policy is a little reluctant to get involved in the private sector." As a result, the critical demand side of the problem is rarely addressed.
When federal employment and training programs first began 30 years ago, the demand side could be taken for granted. More jobs were available than today, and youth were better able to find employment that was relevant to both their academic and lifelong success. As the economy has changed, however, jobs have become more scarce, and opportunities for youth are often the first to be cut. Today, a number of programs are attempting to fight this trend by developing "demand side policies that have some effective procedures and operations."
Carolyn W. Green, Operations Manager at the Center for Employment Training (CET), discussed how CET is promoting demand-side employment training programs. By establishing links with local industries and organizations, CET has identified which areas and occupations are most in need of skilled workers and is therefore able to design programs aimed directly at these employers' needs. As a result, CET "only trains for jobs that are in demand as determined by our local industries . . . and is able to match job-ready training to employer needs," stated Green.
A private, non-profit, organization, CET works with a diverse variety of trainees -- but focuses mainly on hard-to-serve youth. The organization operates its own intake, assessment, counseling, basic and life skills programs with an eye always directed at the needs of the business community. This model has improved both the employment opportunities and earnings prospects of all participants -- areas in which youth employment and training programs often lag behind adult vocational programs. Green concluded by stating "We contribute our success to our strong ties with local industry." By knowing what jobs are available before providing skills training to youth, CET is better able to provide practical training that promotes improved economic outcomes.
Margery Turner, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), discussed HUD's new "Bridges to Work" demonstration program that aims to provide inner-city residents with suburban employment opportunities. According to Turner, in the past, low-skill, yet decent paying, jobs were available in the inner-cities, but today, "Jobs are not located where the unemployment is . . . the growth in low skill jobs is not in the cities." These changing patterns of employment opportunities are one piece of the continuous cycle of disinvestment in the nation's inner cities which is exacerbated by failing schools, crime, and violence. The demonstration project, currently being operated in ten cities, attempts to bring people in need of employment in touch with job opportunities that would not otherwise be available to them.
The program goes beyond simply providing transportation for inner-city residents to suburban industries by focusing on three main areas: 1) the "demand" for workers in suburban industries, 2) informing cities of job opportunities in suburban areas, and 3) support services for these inner-city residents (i.e., child care, transportation).
While this program hopes to have a direct effect on employment opportunities for inner-city workers, HUD expects a secondary, yet powerful, result as well -- the revitalization of the nation's inner cities. An increase in employed and economically productive workers will not only provide youth in the nation's cities with better role models, but also return consumption power to urban areas. As more workers become employed, others will be able to witness first hand the benefits of work and strive for employment themselves. The resulting increase in workforce participation will increase the aggregate wealth of the nation's cities and, in the end, improve the welfare of the nation as a whole.
The key to the "Bridges to Work" program, however, remains in fostering employer buy-in. A successful program must include: 1) a community-based organization with strong links to its populace and a willingness to invest in training workers for suburban jobs, 2) a transportation provider who is willing to provide services not for profit but for the benefit of the community, and 3) a chair or moderator who can oversee programming and ensure that the needs of the community and of individual workers are being met. "The Bridges to Work" program sets out to determine if such a combination is possible and effective.
Basil Whiting, Director of the WorkPlus program at P/PV, outlined its effort to improve the economic prospects of young people by focusing on both the supply and the demand side of employment training policy. The majority of today's students work, but most hold part-time, short-term service sector jobs with little relevance to future employment prospects. The WorkPlus program attempts to redefine these jobs as points of entry in a long working career, not as dead end jobs viewed only as a source of income.
Whiting stated that employers 1) have an impulse to help young people and 2) are concerned with the performance and productivity of their own businesses. Employers who set out to help youth, however, have grown increasingly frustrated with hiring teenage workers because of the high turnover rate -- which ranges from 50 to 400 percent a year. While many employers are willing to pay teens higher wages and fund training programs, they must first be convinced that such an investment can help to reduce this tremendous rate of turnover.
To help achieve this end, WorkPlus focuses on three areas -- the workplace, off-the-job skills training and development, and employee monitoring and regulation in an attempt to make a youth's workplace experience more relevant and more effective. On the demand side, the program not only provides support services for businesses, but also trains supervisors in how to work with high school youth. On the supply side, WorkPlus documents the skills that youth learn on the job. It helps the workplace become a more active learning environment, and training programs and employers become better able to identify the skills required for economic success across the nation. In this manner, skills and abilities developed by a young person in one geographic area are recognized and documented if the youth moves to another locality.
Off-the-job, WorkPlus provides youth with supportive services, educational skills training, and counselors who monitor their progress. Counselors also make periodic site visits and assist youth in developing a portfolio and career focus by emphasizing the importance of obtaining diverse work experiences. The goal is for youth to stop "hopping from job to job" and instead seek out "a sequence of jobs over time that will provide them with direction and a range of skills."
Finally, the WorkPlus program aims to ensure that this type of employment and training option remains a positive growth tool for youth. Many teens employed in the service sector often grow bored on the job, yet are afraid to discuss any problems they are having with their supervisors. To these youth, the only recourse is to quit, and find a new, often equally boring and irrelevant, job. WorkPlus encourages youth to seek out new challenges and responsibilities in the workplace, and, if necessary, will intervene on their behalf. After a youth has learned all he or she can from a job, WorkPlus not only helps them find new work which will help build on those skills already learned but also assists the original employer in locating new employees. WorkPlus hopes that its equal attention to the supply and demand side of education and job training will help better prepare youth for the challenges that await in the 21st Century.