Employers Talk About Building A School-to-Work System: Voices From the Field
Employers Talk About Building a School-to-Work System: Voices From The Field, co-published by the American Youth Policy Forum and the Institute for Educational Leadership's Center for Workforce Development, offers a unique, front-line look at why employers and intermediary organizations are engaged in school-to-work systems and the "nuts-and-bolts" operational strategies used by a cross-section of organizations.
After an introduction describing the background and context of the 1994 federal school-to-work legislation and its implementation, the book moves directly into the "Voices" of its contributors. The employers' essays highlight the need for school-to-work, the benefits that individual firms have gained from participation, and obstacles that have been encountered and overcome. Equally insightful is the discussion of specific programs developed within individual school-to-work systems. The variety of programs is as wide-ranging as the diversity of employers and sectors surveyed, from high-tech firms such as Advanced Micro Devices and Ford Motor Company to service industries.
Several employer "Voices" include: BellSouth; Partners HealthCare Systems, Inc; Charles Schwab & Company, Inc.; Coors Brewing Company; Johnson & Johnson; Exempla Health/Lutheran Medical Center; McDonald's USA; Motorola Semiconductor Products; Peavey Electronics Corporation; Siemens Corporation; and UNUM Corporation.
The intermediary organizations add to the "Voices" by describing what it takes to create partnerships between the schools, employers and other community representatives that make up school-to-work systems. Contributors range from local intermediaries, such as the Morris/Sussex/Warren School-to-Work Consortium (NJ) discussing how community needs led to the development of its school-to-work initiative, to national ones, such as Civic Strategies/School & Main discussing why emerging school-to-work systems should consider the lessons learned from systems in operation across the country.
Other contributing intermediaries include: Capital Area Training Foundation; Corporation for Business, Work and Learning; New Brunswick Tomorrow; Oregon Business Council and Boston Private Industry Council.
Copies of the 106-page report are available from the American Youth Policy Forum, 1836 Jefferson Place, NW, Washington, DC 20036-2505. Cost of the report is $10 prepaid.
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The activities of the Forum are made possible by the support of a consortium of philanthropic foundations: Pew Charitable Trusts, Charles S. Mott Foundation, W. K. Kellogg Foundation, Ford Foundation and General Electric Fund.
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