repos t resumes - eric · historically, unemployed workers and. others needing manpower services...

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REPOS T RESUMES ED 016 907 VT 003 2102 NEW DIRECTIONS IN MANPOWER PROGRAMS, A REPRINT FROM THE 1967 MANPOWER REPORT. MANPOWER ADMINISTRATION IDOL), WASHINGTON, D.C. PUB DATE ST ORS PRICE MFS0.29 MCS1.20 t$11. DESCRIPTORS- *VOCATIONAL EDUCATION, *FEDERAL PROGRAMS, *MANPOWER DEVELOPMENT, *JOS TRAINING, *EMPLOYMENT, UNEMPLOYED, DISADVANTAGED GROUPS, ADMINISTRATIVE POLICY, THE NEW DIRECTIONS WERE THE OUTGROWTH OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTS INCLUDINGRISING EMPLOYMENT, EMERGING LABOR SHORTAGES, AND CONTINUED HARD CORE UNEMPLOYMENT. A DISTINGUISHING FEATURE OF 1966 WAS THE EXTENT TO WHICH IDEAS WERE BROUGHT FROM THE PLANNING OR TESTING STAGE TO INNOVATIVE ACTION BY MANY AGENCIES OF THE GOVERNMENT. THE OVERRIDING CONCERN IN THESE ACTIONS WAS TO DEAL MORE EFFECTIVELY AND FUNDAMENTALLY WITH THE PROBLEMS OF THE DISADVANTAGED, BUT IMPORTANT STEPS WERE ALSO TAKEN TO HELP MEET SKILL SHORTAGE PROBLEMS AND TO COORDINATE MANPOWER PROGRAMS WITH OTHER RELATED STATE AND LOCAL PROGRAMS. MANY BUSINESSES AND INDUSTRIES RECRUITED, EMPLOYED, AND TRAINED DISADVANTAGED WORKERS AND COOPERATED IN EFFORTS TO MEET HOUSING, TRANSPORTATION, AND OTHER SOCIAL PROBLEMS. MANY NATIONAL LABOR UNIONS STIMULATED UPGRADING TRAINING TO IMPROVE SKILLS AND OPEN OPPORTUNITIES FOR LARGE MEMBERS OF THE DISADVANTAGED IN ENTRY OCCUPATIONS. SPECIFIC SUBJECTS DISCUSSED ARE (1) REACHING AND SERVING THE DISADVANTAGED THROUGH THE HUMAN RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM, MULTISERVICE NEIGHBORHOOD CENTERS, AND REFOCUSED MANPOWER DEVELOPMENT AND TRAINING ACT (NDTA) PROGRAMS, (0) IMPROVING EMPLOYABILITY THROUGH IOTA TRAINING, NEIGHBORHOOD YOUTH CORPS PROJECTS, PROGRAMS FOR WELFARE CLIENTS, AND STATEWIDE PROJECTS, (3) INITIATING NEW FORMS OF JOB DEVELOPMENT THROUGH INDUSTRY COOPERATION, YOUTH OPPORTUNITY CAMPAIGNS, AND WORK - TRAINING PROGRAMS, (4) INITIATING INNOVATIONS IN OCCUPATIONAL TRAINING, (3) MEETING THE PROBLEMS OF SPECIAL GROUPS, SUCH AS OLDER WORKERS, AMERICAN INDIANS, MEXICANAMERICANS, TEXAS MIGRATORY WORKERS, DISADVANTAGED SERVICEMEN AND REJECTEES, AND PRISON INNATE!), AND 16) IMPLEMENTING NEW ADMINISTRATIVE POLICIES, SUCH AS USE OF COORDINATING TEAMS, JOINT FUNDING, AND NATIONAL -STATE PLANNING. THE REPORT WAS AN ACCOUNT OF PROGRAM BEGINNINGS RATHER THAN ACCOMPLISHMENTS. THIS ARTICLE IS A REPRINT FROM "1967 MANPOWER REPORT' AND IS AVAILABLE FROM THE MANPOWER ADMINISTRATION OFFICE OF MANPOWER POLICY, EVALUATION, AND RESEARCH, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR, 14TH STREET AND CONSTITUTION AVENUE, WASHINGTON, D.C. 10210. MI)

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Page 1: REPOS T RESUMES - ERIC · Historically, unemployed workers and. others needing manpower services have been ex-pected to find the appropriate agencies and take their problems there

REPOS T RESUMESED 016 907

VT 003 2102NEW DIRECTIONS IN MANPOWER PROGRAMS, A REPRINT FROM THE 1967MANPOWER REPORT.MANPOWER ADMINISTRATION IDOL), WASHINGTON, D.C.

PUB DATE STORS PRICE MFS0.29 MCS1.20 t$11.

DESCRIPTORS- *VOCATIONAL EDUCATION, *FEDERAL PROGRAMS,*MANPOWER DEVELOPMENT, *JOS TRAINING, *EMPLOYMENT,UNEMPLOYED, DISADVANTAGED GROUPS, ADMINISTRATIVE POLICY,

THE NEW DIRECTIONS WERE THE OUTGROWTH OF ECONOMICDEVELOPMENTS INCLUDINGRISING EMPLOYMENT, EMERGING LABORSHORTAGES, AND CONTINUED HARD CORE UNEMPLOYMENT. ADISTINGUISHING FEATURE OF 1966 WAS THE EXTENT TO WHICH IDEASWERE BROUGHT FROM THE PLANNING OR TESTING STAGE TO INNOVATIVEACTION BY MANY AGENCIES OF THE GOVERNMENT. THE OVERRIDINGCONCERN IN THESE ACTIONS WAS TO DEAL MORE EFFECTIVELY ANDFUNDAMENTALLY WITH THE PROBLEMS OF THE DISADVANTAGED, BUTIMPORTANT STEPS WERE ALSO TAKEN TO HELP MEET SKILL SHORTAGEPROBLEMS AND TO COORDINATE MANPOWER PROGRAMS WITH OTHERRELATED STATE AND LOCAL PROGRAMS. MANY BUSINESSES ANDINDUSTRIES RECRUITED, EMPLOYED, AND TRAINED DISADVANTAGEDWORKERS AND COOPERATED IN EFFORTS TO MEET HOUSING,TRANSPORTATION, AND OTHER SOCIAL PROBLEMS. MANY NATIONALLABOR UNIONS STIMULATED UPGRADING TRAINING TO IMPROVE SKILLSAND OPEN OPPORTUNITIES FOR LARGE MEMBERS OF THE DISADVANTAGEDIN ENTRY OCCUPATIONS. SPECIFIC SUBJECTS DISCUSSED ARE (1)REACHING AND SERVING THE DISADVANTAGED THROUGH THE HUMANRESOURCES DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM, MULTISERVICE NEIGHBORHOODCENTERS, AND REFOCUSED MANPOWER DEVELOPMENT AND TRAINING ACT(NDTA) PROGRAMS, (0) IMPROVING EMPLOYABILITY THROUGH IOTATRAINING, NEIGHBORHOOD YOUTH CORPS PROJECTS, PROGRAMS FORWELFARE CLIENTS, AND STATEWIDE PROJECTS, (3) INITIATING NEWFORMS OF JOB DEVELOPMENT THROUGH INDUSTRY COOPERATION, YOUTHOPPORTUNITY CAMPAIGNS, AND WORK - TRAINING PROGRAMS, (4)INITIATING INNOVATIONS IN OCCUPATIONAL TRAINING, (3) MEETINGTHE PROBLEMS OF SPECIAL GROUPS, SUCH AS OLDER WORKERS,AMERICAN INDIANS, MEXICANAMERICANS, TEXAS MIGRATORY WORKERS,DISADVANTAGED SERVICEMEN AND REJECTEES, AND PRISON INNATE!),AND 16) IMPLEMENTING NEW ADMINISTRATIVE POLICIES, SUCH AS USEOF COORDINATING TEAMS, JOINT FUNDING, AND NATIONAL-STATEPLANNING. THE REPORT WAS AN ACCOUNT OF PROGRAM BEGINNINGSRATHER THAN ACCOMPLISHMENTS. THIS ARTICLE IS A REPRINT FROM"1967 MANPOWER REPORT' AND IS AVAILABLE FROM THE MANPOWERADMINISTRATION OFFICE OF MANPOWER POLICY, EVALUATION, ANDRESEARCH, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR, 14TH STREET ANDCONSTITUTION AVENUE, WASHINGTON, D.C. 10210. MI)

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02CI)

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U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION & WELFARE

OFFICE Of EDUCATION

THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN REPRODUCED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROM THEPERSON OR OR6ANIZATIIN ORIGINATING IT. POINTS OF VIEW Uk OPINIONSSTATED DO NOT NECESSARILY

REPRESENT OFFICIAL OFFICE OF EDUCATIONPOSITION OR POLICY.

NEW DIRECTIONS

IN MANPOWER

PROGRAMS.A REPRINT FROM THE1961 MANPOWER REPORT

OP.

U S DEPARTMENT OF LABOR Marpo er Adrr ,rtstra:ion

Page 3: REPOS T RESUMES - ERIC · Historically, unemployed workers and. others needing manpower services have been ex-pected to find the appropriate agencies and take their problems there

CONTENTS

New Directions in Manpower Programs

PageReachin!, and ,ervin!, the di,advantag-ed _ _ 4s

The Homan Itesonrces Development program 4SNIulti,ervice nei<rhborhood centers__ - 49Refocusing, of NIDTA program,

IlnpreVin!r 51Nei,hborhood Youth Cors_ 52Pro gram, for welfare clients_ 52The ,t atewide project, 53

New forms of job development 54Enlisting industry cooperationWork-training programs 56

Innovations in occu pa t io )11 id t raining 57New departures in the NIDTA program 57The OW program 60Vocational education _ _ _ _ 60

NIeeting the problem of special groups 69Older workers_ _ _ 69American Indians _ 63Nlexicain Americans 64Texas mi<-,ratory workers _ 65Disadvantaged servicemen and rejectees__ 65Prison inmates__ _ _ _ _ 66

New administrative policies_ 67The comprehensive approach _ 6sJoint funding _ _ _ 69National-State planning' 69

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The President sends tc tits Congress each year a report on the Nation'smanpower as required by the Manpower Development and Training Actof 1962. Published together in that report are the Manpower Report of thePresident and an accompanying comprehensive report by the Departmentof Labor on manpower requirements, resources, utilization, and training.

This is a reprint of the chapter on New Directions in Manpower Programsfrom the Department of Labor's report.

Information regarding reprints of other sections of the 1967 ManpowerReport may be obtained at the locations listed on the inside back cover.

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NEW DIRECTIONS

IN MANPOWER PROGRAMS

The changing nature of the Nation's manpowerproblems led, in 1966, to major changes of direc-tion in manpower policy and program, which werestrongly supported by congressional action.

The new emphases were the logical outgrowthof economic developments reviewed in the previouschapterrising employment and emerging laborshortages and, at the same time, persistent hard-core unemployment. They grew, too, out of in-creasing sophistication in applying manpowermeasures as an instrument of public policy anda mounting confidence that intelligence, determi-nation, and the proper tools could bring aboutmuch fuller utilization of the country's humanresources.

The civil rights movement had heightened at-tention to the severity of unemployment amongminority groups. The War on Poverty hadopenC. the eyes of the Nation to the distress inurban slums and impoverished rural areas notadequately served by the conventional programs.Four years of experience under the ManpowerDevelopment and Training Act had shown thatflexible training programs could be devised andcoupled with other necessary services to pro-vide an effective bridge to employment for eventhe most severely deprived. And, finally, con-gressional action in 1966 went far toward fillingthe gaps in authorized manpower programs andpermitting needed adjustments.

Many of the new program directions of 1966,which are the subject of this chapter, flowed fromideas discussed or tested in preceding years.

N.A.,101S, `

What distinguished 1966 was the extent to vetichideas were brought from the planning or tintingstage to innovative action by many agencies ofthe Government.

The overriding concern in these new programactions was to deal more effectively and funda-mentally with the problems of the disadvantaged.But important, steps were taken also to help inmeeting skill shortage problems.

Better coordination of manpower and relatedprograms as another major goal. High prioritywas assigned to developing integrated national-State planning of these programs. And extensiveefforts were made to insure that the resources of allconcerned Government and private agencies wouldbe brought to bear effectively on manpower prob-lems, both nationally and in local communities.

Another significant new direction in 1966 wasthe growing participation of business and indus-try in manpower development and utilization pro-grams, sparked in part by personnel shortages inmany occupations. Employers have demonstrateda growing awareness that they have a role toplay in enabling disadvantaged people to becomeproductive workers. Many companies have notonly reached out into their communities to recruit,employ, and train disadvantaged workers, buthave also cooperated in efforts to meet housing,transportation, and other social problems.'

Whale developments are documented in recent reports of theNational Industrial Conference Board, and are being encouragedby such national employer organisations as the Q.B. Chamber ofCommerce, the National Association of Manufacturers. and Plansfor Progress.

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A parallel development has been the strong ini-tiative of many national labor unions in stimu-lating upgrading training, to improve skills andto open opportunities for large numbers of disad-vantaged workers in entry occupations.

Since many of the programs which reflect thesenew directions got underway toward the end of1966, this chapter is to a great extent an accountof program beginnings rather than accomplish-ments. During 1967, these programs--many ofthem pilot projectsmust be closely monitored,and the insights and experience gained must then

be applied as widely as possible. Strengthenedefforts must be made also to eliminate overlaps andinconsistencies and reduce the administrative diffi-culties communities face in seeking to utilize theresources available to them under Governmentmanpower programs.

A concentrated attack on the problems of job-lessness and poverty iii urban slums and the poor-est rural areas will represent the paramount newdirection of program action during 1967. Theseproblems and the actions undertaken to meet themare dealt with in the next two chapters.

Reaching and Serving the Disadvantaged

The most disadvantaged of this Nation's citi-zen. those least able to qualify for or find workwithout substantial helpare also those least likelyto seek out or even know about the training, place-ment, and other services potentially available tothem. Historically, unemployed workers andothers needing manpower services have been ex-pected to find the appropriate agencies and taketheir problems there. But many of the presentunemployed and underemployed are disillusioned,apathetic, or hostile, and have cultural barriersand communication difficulties. Those in ruralareasand even many in urban slumsmay belocated far away from sources of help and havelittle, if any, knowledge of these services.

From early experience under the MDTA and re-lated programs, it was evident that many of thesepeople were, in the words of the Secretary of La-bor, "slipping through the mesh of the employ-ment-welfare-opportunity program * * *. Wehave been waiting for them to come to us insteadof going to them." As he pointed out, more activeapproaches were needed to reach the disad-vantaged.

Experimental and demonstration (E&D) proj-ects, beginning as early as 1963 under the Man-power Development and Tra_aing Act, had provedthat positive programs of "outreach" can searchout the marginally employable, the chronically un-employed, even those who have abandoned thesearch for work, and encourage them to take ad-vantage of opportunities for change.

4$

As a result, broader efforts to make needed serv-ices readily accessible to the poor were undertakenin 1965. A network of Youth Opportunity Cen-ters was established in War on Poverty targetareas by the Federal-State Employment Servicesystem. The YOC's provide services for all youngpeople seeking work and also, as an important ele-ment, reach out to disadvantaged youth in order tohelp them increase their employability and getjobs. At the same time, neighborhood centerswere established in many urban neighborhoods byCommunity Action agencies, a major arm of theWar on Poverty. These centers, within walkingdistance of as many slum residents as possible,provide information about existing services and,to the extent feasible, actually house needed serv-ices. Employment Service personnel, for exam-ple, are now stationed in many such centers to pro-vide counseling, job market information, trainingreferral, placement, and related services therethus eliminating the need for travel to a distantcentral office.

THE HUMAN RESOURCES DEVELOPMENTPROGRAM

Building on these and other person-oriented ef-forts to find work for the chronically unemployed,a broad Human Resources Development (HRD)program was undertaken by the EmploymentService in August 1966. Limited operations hadbegun in all States by the end of the year.

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The prototype was a pilot "intensive service"program in four slum neighborhoods of Chicago.Under the sponsorship of the Mayor's Committeeon Manpower, city, State, and Federal agenciesjoined forces with representatives of business andminority groups and community agencies. Theapproach was first to conduct a door-to-door, per-son-to-person survey of employment needs in thetarget areas and then to follow through with atwo-pronge,:.. effort to (1) work with employersto increase employment opportunities for the dis-advantaged and (2) help disadvantaged individ-uals prepare and qualify for these jobs. Experi-mental programs of the same kindfeaturing anintensive door-to-door outreach approach and test-ing a variety of techniques for meeting the prob-lems of those interviewedwere undertaken in St.Louis, Houston, Rochester, New York City, and, inmodified form, in Watts and the entire south cen-tral Los Angeles area. All projects confirmed theneed for and response to such outreach and theaccompanying need for more training and job op-portunities for the hard-core unemployed?

To provide operating bases for the new HRDprogram, the Youth Opportunity Centers, now es-tablished in 127 metropolitan areas throughout thecountry, have expanded their functions to provideservice to the disadvantaged in all age groups.In addition, the facilities and services of ongoingorganizations in slum neighborhoodsincludingCommunity Action Program centers, Employ-ment Service offices, and settlement housesarebeing widely utilized. In some rural areas themobile units of the Employment Service's SmallerCommunities Program are also beginning to beused.

In slum areas, people from the same neighbor-hood and culture can, with far greater acceptanceand effectiveness than strangers, go from house tohouse and win response from men and womenoften mistrustful and hostile to public agency pro-grams. So, the outreach staff in the HRD pro-gram are, as far as possible, neighborhood resi-dents who have received special training.

At the HRD centers, special counseling staffwork individually with persons encouraged tocome in by the outreach staff and plan how to

2 These findings regarding the responsiveness of persons oftencharacterized as "unemployable" were borne out by an outreachproject of the Connecticut State Employment service in Hartford(discussed in the following section on new forms of job develop-

ment) and by various experimental and demonstration projectswhich had focused particularly on youth,

remove the obstacle? to their employment. If per-sonal difficulties such as living conditions, familyor child-care problems, legal and credit questions,and problems of clothing or tools or transportationhamper employability, or if problems of physicalor mental health stand in the way, the welfare andhealth services of the community are called onunder cooperative arrangements. The plan foreach individual may include, in any needed com-bination, basic education, other pretraining prep-aration, work-experience programs, and institu-tional, on-the-job, or apprenticeship training.For youth the plan may also involve referral tothe Neighborhood Youth Corps or Job Corps.Heavy emphasis is being placed on gaining thecooperation of employers, to insure that traineeswill be able to find suitable job openings whenready for competitive employment.

MULTISERVICE NEIGHBORHOOD CENTERS

Since neighborhood centers like the Youth Op-portunity Centers and those operated by Commu-nity Action agencies are clearly providing agreatly needed channel of communication andservice, the establishment of multiservice neigh-borhood centers in every ghetto area was made anational goal by Presidential directive in August1966.

The purpose is to provide an even wider rangeof on-the-spot services on a coordinated basistoovercome problems not only of distance and trans-poe_ation expense but of specialization and orga-nizational separation which have all too ofteninterfered with the availability of needed social,health, manpower, recreational, and educationalservices. In many cases the available services havebeen fragmentary and uneven, or located in citycenters far from poverty areas. And complexeligibility procedures often stand in the way.

Pilot den onstration projects with various mul-tiservice center approaches are being arrangedfor initially in 14 citiesBoston, Chattanooga,Chicago, Cincinnati, Dallas, Detroit, Jacksonville,Louisville, Minneapolis, New York, Oakland,Philadelphia, St. Louis, and Washington. Thesecities all have unquestioned need for assistance insolving the urgent human problems in their slumareas, have cooperative and interested local gov-ernments, and expect to contribute to the cost ofthe projects. A principal objective is to develop

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improved patterns of Federal, State, and localcooperation in providing neighborhood services.The Community Action agencies will have a cen-tral role in this undertaking, which will seek todevelop services highly responsive to the needsand desires of the people of the neighborhood andyet utilize the expertise of professional serviceagencies.

The pilot programs will utilize and test severaldifferent organizational approaches :

An advice and referral center that chieflyprovides information and directs people tospecialized agencies for services. Such cen-ters will also engage in outreach, advocacy,and followup services and may provide trans-portation.

A diagnostic and limited service center thathas a central intake and analysis unit, to in-terview people, ascertain needs, and refer ortake them to specialized agencies linked tothe center. Limited on-the-spot services mayalso be provided at the center or within walk-ing distance of it.

A comprehensive multipurpose center that,ideally, is a social service "shopping plaza,"housing under one roof or within walking dis-tance as many community social agencies aspossible and providing central outreach, in-take, diagnosis, advocacy, followup, and com-munity organization functions.

The aim in all three types of programs is to pro-vide easy access to :

Manpower services, including aptitude ap-praisal, employment counseling, and place-ment services; relocation counseling services;adult and remedial education; work-experi-ence training; prevocational and vocationaltraining (including on-the-job training andclassroom instruction) ; and such supportiveservices as bonding and assistance in moving.

Health and welfare services, includingphysical and mental health consultations andexaminations, family life and rehabilitationcounseling services, and financial and othermaintenance services.

Adult and remedial education, cultural en-richment programs, and similar activities.

Information on citizens' rights and legalservices.

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Housing assistance and recreational activi-ties.

Senior citizens' activities.Youth development resources.Child development and parent informationservices.

The pilot programs are being developed by thecommunities themselves, with emphasis on grass-roots planning and provision of public and privateservices. The Federal Government can breakbottlenecks and provide resources, but the activeinvolvement of the city and the neighborhood iscrucial. The local sponsor must achieve consensusand cooperative arrangements, including definitearrangements for coordination with and assistancefrom the city and State governments.

To carry out Federal responsibilities for fund-ing and providing technical assistance and infor-mation, five Federal agencies have organized aJoint Steering Committee, under the chairman-ship of the Department of Housing and UrbanDevelopment. Under the program of Neighbor-hood Facilities Grants, established by the Hous-ing and Urban Development Act of 1965, thisDepartment is to help finance the construuaon andrehabilitation of buildings used by the centers.Other agencies participating are the Departmentsof Labor and of Health, Education, and Welfare,the Office of Economic Opportunity, and the Bu-reau of the Budget, which have joined with HUDin developing guidelines and standards for thecenters and will assist in evaluating the projectsand providing guides for wider application of themultiservice center idea. State agencies are alsoexpected to play a major role.

REFOCUSING OF MDTA PROGRAMS

Since its enactment, the Manpower Develop-ment and Training Act has been a living, changinglaw, with substantial amendment on three occa-sions, and the MDTA programs have demon-strated flexibility and capacity to adapt quicklyto changing needs. At the start, in 1962, fear oftechnological displacement was the uppermostconcern. Occupations in which opportunitieswere growing were identified, and displaced butexperienced workers were trained to fill them. Asconcern grew for the problem of jobless youth,

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special youth programs were developed to provideyoung people with entry skills. When a wide-spread need for basic education prior to vocationaltraining became apparent, the Congress respondedby authorizing basic literacy training. As experi-ence accumulated, it was evident that MDTAprograms were functioning effectively, within thelimits of their funding, for large numbers of un-employed people who could be brought into themainstream of employment.

In 1966, however, a redirection of the MDTAprogram was called for by the changing man-power situation. It was decided, as a nationaltrei,:ning goal, that approximaely 65 percent ofthe entire training effort would be "person ori-ented," directed to reclaiming the hard-core un-employed. Special groups with the greatest em-ployment difficulties were identified : Culturallyimpoverished and poorly educated youth, the un-employed of middle age or older, minority groups,persons with low educational achievement, thelong-term unemployed, and the rural poor. Andguidelines were established to assure a spread oftraining opportunities among these groups.

The balance of the training effortapproxi-mately 35 percent of the totalwas to be "joboriented," focusing 311 the need for trained person-nel in skill shortage categories.

With the funds available, the target set for fiscalyear 1967 was training for 250,000 individualsa reduction from the 275,000 total for the previousyear, since it was recognized that the new emphasis

on the disadvantaged would require more intensiveeffort with many individual trainees. Trainingemphasis was to be equally divided between insti-tutional and on-the-job training, and special at-tention was to be given to enlisting greater assist-ance from industry in training for upgrading andin providing opportunity for the disadvantaged.

It was recognized that no sharp dividing linecould in fact be drawn between the two aspectsof the training programhuman reclamation andthe remedy of skill shortages ; that solo.) in the dis-advantaged groups would, through training, enterthe shortage occupations where production andservice needs were greatest, and that others, un-skilled, would move into jobs vacated as semi-skilled and skilled workers moved up the jobladder as a result of upgrading training. The pro-gram called for all possible measures to enable dis-advantaged workers with potential to enter occu-pations through which they could move upwardto higher skill levels.

Flexibility in program planning based on localsupp4 and demand situations, the availability oftraining facilities, and other factors is anticipatedand desired. But analysis of State-by-State pro-grams indicates that, by and large, the nationalgoals will be met or nearly met in the current fiscalyear. In fiscal 1968, with more leadtime availablefor planning and little change in basic programemphasis foreseen, full realization of the nationaltraining objectives is expected.

Improving Employability

The task of bringing people with the greatestemployment difficulties to a position of employ-ability and self-support is never simple. In manycases, occupational training cannot be undertakeneffectively until a great deal of preliminary efforthas gone into modifying attitudes, bolstering con-fidence, developing positive motivation, and pro-viding needed work orientation.

To develop and test effective approaches for in-creasing employability, experimental and dem-onstration projects were set up under the Man-power Development and Training.Act. Furtherinsights have been gained through the Human

Resources Development program and through ex-perience under the Neighborhood Youth Corps,Job Corps, and other War on Poverty programs.

To permit wider application of the techniquesthus developed, the Congress, in a 1966 amendmentto the MDTA, authorized training in communi-cations and "employment" skills, with or withoutoccupational training. ("Employment" skills in-clude, for example, job-finding skills, improvedwork habits, and work and social attitudes condu-cive to satisfactory occupational adjustment.)Thus, employability training and basic education

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may now be provided to persons who already haveoccupational skills but need these other kinds oftraining to become employable, as well as to per-sons who also need occupational training.

In considering the problem of deficient com-munications skills, the House Committee on Laborand Public Welfare pointed to "excellent work* * * at Howard University and other locations* * showing that what may seem to be impene-trable ignorance and near illiteracy * * * maywell be merely the result of having learned tocommunicate in a substantially different way thanthat of the prospective employer or the membersof the public with whom the worker will have todeal." 3

The need for the amendment was confirmed byreports from Employment Service and welfareofficials that many jobseekers cannot be placed,despite tightness in the job market, because of un-familiarity with basic requirements of work; arecord of excessive absenteeism, careless work, orjob hopping; and lack of knowledge of how tolook for jobs or present their qualifications to em-ployers. Many foreign-born people were also re-ported to have particular need for improvedknowledge of English.

Another 1966 amendment to the MDTA whichwill help to remove barriers to employment formany individuals authorizes a moderate expendi-ture (not more than $100 in any individual case)for physical examinations, minor medical treat-ment, or prostheses for trainees needing such helpand unable to obtain it otherwise. The purposeis to reduce problems common to all MDTA pro-gramsthe large number of dropouts from train-ing for health reasons and the inability of manyworkers who have completed training to pass pre-employment physical examinations.

NEIGHBORHOOD YOUTH CORPS

In the 2 years since the first NeighborhoodYouth Corps contract was signed, more than four-fifths of a million disadvantaged young Amer-icans in all 50 States have been helpedthroughwork experience in both in-school and out-of-

3 "Manpower Development and (training Amendments of 1966"(Washington : 89th Cong., 2d sees., U.S. House of Representatives,Committee on Education and Labor, September 8, 1966), ReportNo. 2017, p. 4.

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school programsto begin their climb toward sat-isfying work careers.

This already large contribution to the workpreparation of disadvantaged youth is beingfurther strengthened under the Economic Oppor-tunity Act amendments of 1966. In particular,the provision for training at the worksite for out-of-school youth, combined where needed with basicliteracy and other education and training, willhelp to develop good work habits. Furthermore,both work experience and work opportunities inindustry now may be arranged with private em-ployers. In these cases, the private employers paythe wages, and NYC the training costs.

Because NYC youth generally need further oc-cupational training in order to qualify for satis-factory permanent jobs, another 1966 MDTAamendment was designed to facilitate the move-ment of NYC enrollees into MDTA occupationaltraining. In the past, very few NYC youth haveenrolled in such courseschiefly because theMDTA youth allowance of $20 a week repre-sented a substantial drop from the NYC wage of$1.25 an hour, and it was thus very difficult to in-terest NYC enrollees in further preparation forwork. Now, NYC youth entering MDTA coursesmay receive the regular training allowance paidto adult trainees, which is equivalent to the aver-age weekly unemployment insurance payment inthe given State.

To implement this amendment, some trainingslots in MDTA courses scheduled to start in early1967 have been set aside specifically for NYCyouth. And exploratory programs in 10 citieswill examine in detail how the NYC work-experience and MDTA training programs best canbe coordinated on a nationwide basis.

PROGRAMS FOR WELFARE CLIENTS

An obviously disadvantaged group whose em-ployability is being increased through work-expe-rience projects are those who have found it neces-sary to seek assistance from public welfareagencies.

The 1962 amendments to the Social Security Actintroduced the concept of rehabilitation, ratherthan simply financial support, by establishing aCommunity Work and Training Program for per-sons 18 years of age or older receiving assistancein the Aid to Families with Dependent Children

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rrogram. The objective was to instill better workhabits in enrollees, to enable them to get and holda job.

Under title V of the Economic OpportunityAct of 1964, this concept was expanded and theprogram made a part of the War on Poverty.This Work-Experience Program (as it was thencalled) serves not only those on welfare but also"other needy persons"largely those who wouldbe eligible for public assistance except for technicalreasons. The focus has continued to be on un-employed adults, primarily the parents of de-pendent children. Maximum use is made of com-munity resources to provide manpower and socialservices, including basic education, vocational in-struction, work experience, job motivation andcounseling, needed supportive services, and assist-ance in finding suitable employment after train-ing. The aim has been flexibility in services,based on assessment of trainee needs and the de-velopment of an individual employability plan.

Experience to date has demonstrated the pro -"ram's considerable potential for social and eco-

,mic rehabilitation of severely disadvantagedindividuals. Much stress has been placed on im-proving literacy levels as the basis for furthereducation and training. Frequently the p. Isenceof a supporting service has made the differencebetween success and failure. Resolution of ahealth or child-care problem, for example, willenable many with learning capacity to enter edu-cation, training, and work-experience programsand ultimately to beconh) successfully employed.

The Work-Experience and Training Program,as renamed in 1966, is funded on a project basisand is conducted by local and State public assist-ance agencies. Currently, more than 260 projectswith a total enrollment of about 67,000 personsare operating in all States except one, and in theDistrict of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, and theVirgin Islands.

By law, the program coordinates its efforts withthose of the public school system and the publicEmployment Service, and it has secured the co-operation of public agencies, private, nonprofit or-ganizations, and private employers. Under re-lated 1966 amendments to both the Economic Op-portunity Act and the Manpower Developmentand Training Act, a closer tie-in with manpowerservices to improve employability, provided by theDepartment of Labor, is now required.

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Under the transitional provisions of the amend-ments, projects which come up for renewal justbefore and after the July 1, 1967 changeover datewill be reviewed and the training and other man-power services provided will be strengthened asneeded. New projects will be so organized as toinsure that all educational, training, and work-training resources in the community are drawnupon, to enable persons on welfare to become inde-pendent.

In the first 21/2 years of the MDTA program,only about 10 percent of the trainees were personswho had received some form of assistance justprior to enrollthent. Most of these were heads offamilies. However, this proportion should andwill be significantly increased. A 1966 amend-ment providing for incentive payments for traineesfrom families on public assistance, together withthe current focus on the severely disadvantaged,should result in a marked increase in the propor-tion of MDTA trainees from welfare rolls.

THE MISSISSIPPI STATEWIDE PROJECTS

A major statewide attack on illiteracy and un-employment through a combination of Federal,State, and local government and private effortshas been undertaken through two separate pro-grams in Mississippi, one initiated late in 1965 andthe other in mid-1966.

The first, known as STAR (Systematic Train-ing and Redevelopment), was developed as a non-denominational program under sponsorship of thestatewide Natchez-Jackson Diocese of the RomanCatholic Church, with funds from the Office ofEconomic Opportunity and the experimental anddemonstration program of the Department ofLabor. Through 15 regional centers, it wasplanned to b.hlg thousands of people up to at leastthe sixth-grade literacy level, to improve their em-ployability. It was expected that vocational prep-aration for 1,500 would then be possible, largelythrough murA projects, although there were atthe time only 15 MDTA courses in operation orin preparation in the State.

Impetus fur the program came from the ex-tremely high rate of unemployment (as much as20 percent) in some counties of the rural cotton-producing Delta Area, coupled with the high rateof illiteracy in the State. Industry, attracted to

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the Delta Area by promise of an ample labor sup-ply brought about by displacements from agricul-ture, had found that the available workers werenot sufficiently literate to qualify for immediateemployment or for skill training. Ms findingwas not surprising. In 1960, 160,000 Mississippiresidents aged 25 or older had had less than 5 yearsof schooling and nearly 41,000 had never attendedschool at all.

By late 1966, more than 5,300 people had finishedthe 13-week basics course which was the heart ofthe STAR program. In addition to reading andwriting, the course included accelerated work inbasic arithmetic, some grounding in practical socialstudies, and education in employment practicesand job performance standards.

The outcome has been disappointing initiallywith respect to progress into MDTA courses.Only 206 of the trainees were able to qualify forsuch courses. And only 331 found employmentbefore or after the STAR training course ended.

Longer term remedial work to bring these workersto a higher literacy level, as well as the develop-ment of more job opportunities for them, will ob-viously be essential for a real solution to theirunemployment problems.

The second project, also statewide, stemmedfrom a survey in 13 counties of the State in early1966 indicating that labor demand warrantedtraining for a wider range of occupations andskill levels. This led to provision for expandedtraining throughout the State. By the end of fis-cal 1966, MDTA training courses and on-the-jobtraining projects had provided opportunities fornearly 6,000 trainees in a large number of occupa-tions. In addition, Neighborhood Youth Corpsprojects gave opportunities for work-experiencetraining or summer jobs to several thousand youth.

This program is continuing in fiscal 1967 andis funded to carry over into 1968, through thecooperative efforts of several Federal agencies.

New Fonns of Job Development

ENLISTING INDUSTRY COOPERATION

With increased understanding of the problemsof jobless youth and the hard-core unemployedhas come growing recognition of the urgent needfor the cooperation of private industry in the de-velopment and employment of the human re-sources. Direct employment on a "real pain job,"before undertaking of specific skill training, canhelp motivate young people impatient with inter-views and prolonged training courses as preludeto a pay envelope. One of the most encouragingdevelopments of 1966 is the willingness of majorsegments of industry to undertake experiments inthis direction, as indicated by the follow"..-4-- ex-amples of projects from among many that could becited.

"Jobs Now" in Chicago

In Chicago, major industries are cooperatingwith Government and community agencies in anE&D project to provide employment and training

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for 3,000 problem youth, and the early results areso encouraging that plans are underway to developsimilar efforts in other large cities.

Launched in September 1966, this demonstra-tion project links as joint sponsors many of thecity's principal industries, labor organizations,private community groups, and public agencies.

Youth are being enrolled in the program at therate of 150 every 2 weeks, and there is a waitinglist of candidates. Word has gone around thatthis project is different. In the first 3 months, 113of the 212 young people who had been referred tojobsgang leaders, delinquents, and others whoha ;e never held a steady jobwere working andlearning on jobs that promise them a future.

The key to the notable early success appears tobe the active cooperation of employers in waiv-ing their usual hiring standards and offering im-mediate employment with no questions asked.Employers are providing and financing trainingon the job in an understanding and encouragingatmosphere. Each trainee is under the direct su-pervision of a specially oriented worker responsi-ble for helping him acquire job skills and compe-

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tines, and for counseling him about personal andjob-related problems. The only preliminary forthe trainee is 2 weeks of prehiring orientation inhuman relations, grooming, money management,and even the city's transportation system, sincemany of the youth know little of the city beyondtheir own neighborhoods.

Another essential element is an active programof job development, carried on partly by men onloan from industry, to work out plans for the par-ticipation of other employers in the program.Personnel known as "service coaches" are alsoavailable to provide support for the trainees, bothin the plant and at home, and for their supervisors.

The project is designed also for national use asa seedbed of successful techniques for transplantto other urban centers. This is accomplishedthrough a program of 2-week seminars for suc-cessive groups of government, community agency,and industrial personnel from all parts of thecountry, who have responsibility for the recruit-ment, training, and employment of the disadvan-UV&

The project's approaches stem from recentstudies which challenge the commonly held viewthat street groups are so committed to antisocial be-havior that they can be dealt with only by thepolice. It relies on documentation that the typicalChicago street youth is ambivalent, that heactually prefers a place in the competitive economyto the street code by which he has learned to live.He has little interest in low-paid, dead-end jobs.He wishes work with a decent paycheck and achance to advance. And if he has shied away fromseeking opportunities, it is because he lacks thequalifications for most entry jobs, probably has apolice record, cannot show his true potentialthrough aptitude tests because of low educationalachievement, is not attracted by small trainingallowances, and has a low tolerance for delay,lengthy and repeated office interviews, and thegrain of making job applications.

"Jobs Now" is dealing with these realities by of-fering immediate employment for wages, togetherwith on-the-job training for occupations offeringpromise of advancement. The approach would beimpossible without the socially motivated coopera-tion of employers. An advisory board includingtop officials of leading business and industrialfirms and organized labor is establishing policyfor the project and interpreting its goals to thebusiness community.

The Hartford Prefect

Employer cooperation also made possible thesubstantial success of a project conducted by theConnecticut State Employment Service in an areaof heavy unemployment in North Hartford. InDecember 1965 and January 1966, EmploymentService staff, working evenings and weekends,went from door to door in this large slum area.The inventory this made of persons interested inwork or training showed a need for greatly in-creased training opportunities. A sizable multi-occupational project was set up, with fundingunder the MDTA, but a wide gap remained be-tween the number who needed jobs or training, orboth, and the number who could be referred toeither. Great need was found also for remedialhealth, welfare, and other services. Lack of trans-portation or of day-care facilities was a further ob-stacle to employment for large numbers.

Some of the needs were met by local public andvoluntary health and welfare agencies and co-operating State agencies. But the problem oflack of jobs remained. This was met, in part atleast, by a statewide job-development programknown as "PLACE." More than 4,500 employerswere asked to "Please Look At Current Employ-Wes." As a result of this intensive promotionaleffort, more than 1,750 of the hard-core unem-ployed were placed in permanent jobs with pri-vate employers; and in a followup effort 2 monthslater, another 450 found work.

Tho Oakland Plan

Early in 1966, the Department of Commercemade known its willingness to invest substantialEconomic Development funds in public works,business loans, and technical assistance in Oak-land, Calif., an area of high unemployment, if as-surance could be obtained through formally ap-proved employment plans that as many of theresulting jobs as possible would be made avail-able to the hard-core unemployed. As a result,a number of private industry and public worksprojects have been funded. Together, these givepromise of more than 2,500 jobs, one-third of themfor the disadvantaged unemployed, primarily Ne-groes and Mexican Americans. And other proj-ects are anticipated. All these projects are beingworked out by the Department of Commerce withthe cooperation of private industry and also of the

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Departments of Labor, and Health, Education,and Welfare, and State government agencies.

With a mandate under the Public Works andEconomic Development Act of 1965 to producejobs in economically depressed areas, the Depart-ment of Commerce is now devising means to ap-ply its Oakland techniques and policies in otherareas. It is requiring as a condition of projectapproval that all beneficiaries, direct and indirect,present to the Department and to a citizens' reviewboard complete hiring plans insuring maximumfeasible employment for the disadvantaged.

For example, requests for public works fundingfrom the city of Everett and other towns in theSeattle, Wash., area, which would help to providefacilities for a major aircraft company, have ledto commitments from that company for large-scale employment of the disadvantaged. The com-pany has also undertaken to give substantial helpto the Seattle Opportunities IndustrializationCenter (one of the OIC centers discussed below) toprovide machinery for MDTA training programsin the area, and to open employment opportunitiesto MC "graduates" and, it is hoped, to Job Corps"graduates" as well. These and other commit-ments offer a prospect of employment opportu-nities with the company for between 3,000 and4,000 disadvantaged persons within 2 yearsahiring schedule that is expected to repeat itselfeach 2 years thereafter.

Summer Job: for Youth

The Youth Opportunity Campaigns, sponsoredby the President and the Vice President during thesummers of 1965 and 1966, revealed a lively inter-est on the .part of employers in providing mean-ingful employment experience and income for thegreat numbers of students and other youth seek-ing jobs for the summer.

The 1966 campaign was carried out on severalfronts, with impressive results. Large-scale pro-motional campaigns by the Federal-State Employ-ment Service system, often in conjunction withcivic-minded service organizations, resulted in theplacement of boys and girls in 743,000 farm andalmost 673,000 nonfarm jobs.

In addition, as a result of special competitiveexaminations, many young people obtained sum-mer jobs as office workers and engineering, labora-tory, and science aides in the Federal Government.

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Federal agencies were also asked, for every 100regular employees, to create one extra summer jobinvolving laboring or other routine work, to befilled by youth from low-income families whowould benefit from guided work experience. Morethan 60,000 were actually hired, or more than 2for every 100 career employees.

A variety of special summer projects also aimedto increase the employment and employability ofyouth. Some experimented with work training ofmentally and physically handicapped youth orwith youthful offenders. Others stressed efforts tocombine work, education, and recreation in newpatterns of summer development for youth.

An innovative and varied summer program wascarried out in Youth Opportunity Centers withexperimental and demonstration funds. This pro-gram employed high school graduates planning toenter college and some high school and collegestudents, to help clear away backlogs of clericalwork. It experimented with the employment ofyouth as community workers to do actual outreachand followup, and it used college students as in-terviewers and job developers to run summerplacement services for other youth. This last ap-proach appears to hold great promise, becauselocal public employment offices have never beensufficiently staffed to meet the peak summertimedemand for youth services. Altogether, the pro-gram provided direct summer employment fornearly 2,000 youth and, through its "do-it-your-self" aspects, opened opportunities for thousandsmore. The techniques developed were so success-ful in meeting peak-load client and operatingneeds that they are being refined for furtherapplication.

The President, in his message to Congress onAmerica's Children and Youth, in February 1967,noted the success of the 1966 Youth OpportunityCampaign, and announced the establishment of aCabinet-level council headed by the Vice Presi-dent to promote summer youth opportunities. Healso directed Federal agencies to continue theirsummer youth employment programs.

WORK-TRAINING PROGRAMS

New programs of work training launched underrecent amendments to the Economic OpportunityAct will open job opportunities for greatly disad-

1

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vantaged people and prepare them for meaningfulwork careers.*

The New Careers Program builds on pioneeringexperiences of the Community Action and MDTAprograms and experimental projects in helpingdisadvantaged people enter subprofessional jobs,usually debarred to them, which offer promise ofprogressive work careers.* Unemployed adults(aged 22 or over) and those whose family incomeis below the poverty line are to receive work train-ing through projects conducted by State and localgovernment agencies and private organizations,with Federal financial support. The work train-ing will be in activities of benefit to the com-munityfor example, in the fields of health, edu-cation, welfare, neighborhood redevelopment, andpublic safety, where personnel needs are expand-ing. Though workers will be employed initiallyas aides and in other entry-level positions, theprojects must offer maximum prospects for theiradvancement to higher level jobs. Education,counseling, transportation assistance, and othersupportive services will also be provided as needed.

The Community Employment and BettermentProgram, authorized by the Congress in 1965, isdirected to the needs of the chronically unem-ployed poor, who are unable, because of age or forother reasons, to secure training or appropriateemployment under other programs. Projects setup under this program will provide work experi-

ence and training in activities which will improvethe physical and social environment of the com-munityfor example, in improving and beautify-ing parks and roadsides, rehabilitating communityfacilities and homes, and providing social andhealth services for the poor. The goal is to enablepeople participating in the program to qualify forpermanent jobs in the competitive job market.

The basic objective of the Special Impact Pro-gram, authorized in 1966, is to solve critical man-power problems in urban communities or neigh-borhoods. The projects will be designed to serveas catalysts in structuring and coordinating ac-tivities under this and other programs, in order toimprove the employment prospects of neighbor-hood residents and the social and physical environ-ment of the neighborhood. Both youth and adultswho are unemployed and from families with in-comes below the poverty line will be eligible toparticipate. Essential supportive services will beprovided, and there will be maximum participa-tion of neighborhood residents in implementingthe project, including their employment in the jobscreated.

All three of these work-training programs, aswell as the Neighborhood Youth Corps (discussedearlier in this chapter), will be administered andcoordinated through the new Bureau of WorkPrograms set up in the Department of Labor.

Innovations in Occupational Training

The year 1966 was one of innovation in occupa-tional training for both present and potentialworkers at many occupational levels. The broadredirection of the MDTA program was part ofthis effort. It was accompanied by a varietyof additional developments and projects, fre-quently of an experimental nature, which are pro-viding guidelines for future strengthening of theprogram. Innovation is also underway in thewhole field of vocational education.

This section illustrates briefly some of thepromising new approaches to training for the

4 Another program, now designated as the Work-Experience andTraining Program, is discussed in the preceding section on im-proving employability.

*The underlying concept is that developed in Arthur Pearl andFrank Riessman, New Careers for the PoorThe Nonprofessionalin. Hannan Service (New York : The Free Press, 1965).

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hard-core unemployed and to the use of upgradingtraining as a means of meeting skill shortagesand, second, suggests in a highly abbreviated waythe range of advances now underway in vocationaleducation.

NEW DEPARTURES IN THE MDTAPROGRAM

OJT for the Disadvantaged

Experience has demonstrated that Vac on-the-job training aspect of the MDTA program has

*For a broader discussion of the problems of skill shortageand approaches to meeting them, see the chapter on Skill Short-ages and Occupational 'Training.

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some clear advantages over occupational trainingin a school setting. The psychological advantageis onethe fact that OJT is actual employment ina work setting, that it carries a paycheck with itrather than an "allowance," and that it leads muchmore directly and surely to continued employmentafter training. The additional practical advan-tages are that the training is directly relevant tothe future job, and the employer, because he ispaying wages to the trainees, has a positive invest-ment and interest in the success of the project.

An important development in the attack on hard-core unemployment, therefore, is that more on-the-job training contracts are being written which callspecifically for employment of the disadvantagedunemployed, minority groups, and youth complet-ing Neighborhood Youth Corps and Job Corpstraining. For example : Under an agreement en-tered into by the International Union of Electri-cal, Radio and Machine Workers (AFL-CIO) inthe latter half of 1966, 1,500 on-the-job trainingslots will be developed for the disadvantaged innine northeastern, midwestern, and mid-AtlanticStates. Six IITE job developers are negotiatingcontracts with employers in the region, and theLabor Department is arranging funding and fol-lowthrough. The agreement specifically requirespriority consideration for Neighborhood YouthCorps enrollees who are ready for employment.Recruiting is being arranged through the Employ-ment Service.

Under another contract, the United AutomobileWorkers (AFL-CIO) is developing 2,060 on-the-job training opportunities with 20 auto parts sup-ply firms in seven States, with 500 places set asfor Neighborhood Youth Corps enrollees.

In another project, nearing completion, sixmajor defense contractors in the aerospace in-dustry joined forces to provide immediate jobs to-gether with training for 1,200 workers from theWatts area of Los Angeles and from other pocketsof concentrated unemployment.

A significant national contract with a nonprofitagency, the Association of Rehabilitation Centers,will provide for trainingupgrading and entryfor 900 persons in nonprofessional occupations tohelp alleviate the shortages in rehabilitation hos-pitals and related institutions. The trainees willbe recruited from among the disadvantaged and,wherever possible, from those who have had pre-liminary work experience in the health field underNYC programs. This is a second contract, the

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Association having already successfully completedthe training of 800.

Combining Shop and Classroom

Coupling of on-the-job and institutional train-ing was accelerated in 1966, resulting in new op-portunities for disadvantaged persons as employ-ers agreed to provide skill training parallel to basiceducation, remedial work, or other supportivetraining.

Because of successful early experience with thiskind of arrangement, an effort is being made tolink a substantial amount of the on-the-job train-ing provided under MDTA in coupled projects.Of the 50 national OJT contracts in effect at theend of the year, covering nearly 60,000 trainees,about half called for coupled training, and thenew MDTA program emphasis will further ad-vance this trend.

A national contract with the InternationalUnion of Operating Engineers calls for a 26-weekcoupled apprentice-entry program. Under an-other with the American Metal Stamping Associa-tion, arrangements will be made through subcon-tractors in 30 eastern and midwestern States foron-the-job training coupled with other training for1,200 diesetters, inspectors, and punch pressoperators.

Under a prime contract with the National Tool,Die, and Precision Machining Association, an ex-perimental coupled program in Cincinnati is train-ing men over 45 as operators of single machines,thus enabling the journeyman tool and die makers(who have had 8,000 hours of training) to devotefull time to highly versatile, precise work. Thearrangement is for 26 weeks of classroom work fol-lowed by 50 weeks of on-the-job training. Thisprogram for skill conservation and opportunityfor the disadvantaged was instituted because ofthe expressed interest of the Department of Laborin expanding employment opportunities for theolder unemployed worker.

Upgrading in Industry

One of the significant developments of 1966 hasbeen the successful efforts made to spur upgrad-ing training in industry. Besides enabling work-ers to move up the job ladder and thus helpingto meet the demand for skilled personnel, these

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programs are also opening opportunities for thedisadvantaged in entry jobs.

For example, under a --.-tional agreementwith the United Brotherhood of Carpentersand Joiners of America, 1,000 journeymen areto be given training which will upgrade theirskills, and 2,000 unemployed men are to betrained as carpenter apprentices. About halfthe trainees will receive preapprenticeshiptraining in a coupled project and the otherhalf will enter apprenticeship directly. Theemploye., will receive OJT assistance for 26weeks of the 4 -year apprenticeship term.

The same pattern is seen in a major pilotproject, launched early in 1967 in New YorkCity, to upgrade the skills of 2,500 employedworkers. The four major unions and indus-trial leaders involved are committed to fillingthe vacated less skilled jobs with entry work-ers drawn from minority groups and the ranksof disadvantaged and long-term unemployed.

Training for Police Work

The recruitment of policemen from the dis-advantaged persons whom they serve should notonly provide entry opportunities for the disadvan-taged but also improve community relations. In1966, pilot projects involving MDTA institutionaltraining were begun in several cities to trainhighly motivated but disadvantaged persons, par-ticularly from minority groups, for police occu-pations. If successful the projects, developedby the Department of Labor in cooperation withthe Departments of Justice and of Health, Edu-cation, and Welfare, will be forerunners of large-scale efforts to overcome the difficulty experiencedby many cities in recruiting suitable police train-ees, particularly from the ranks of disadvantagedNegroes, Puerto Ricans, and Mexican Americans.Members of these groups often fail to meet em-ployment criteria because of physical and educa-tional deficiences, or do not seek opportunities inpolice work. The pilot programs are designed todetermine how MDTA training can correct thesedeficiencies and help the trainees to qualify forentry into police work.

In New York City, for example, 1,000 volun-teers, mostly Negro and Puerto Rican, are enrolledfor half-year and 1-year courses of solid educa-tional instruction and rugged physical training.

The trainees have a firm goal and excellent moti-vation, and the dropout rate has been very low.The Police Department considers the training tobe excellent and to be an extremely important ele-ment in police-community relations.

In his special message on Crime in the UnitedStates in February 1967, the President pointed tothe tremendous needs for improving and extend-ing the training of law enforcement officials, forrecruitment of persons with an understanding ofneighborhood problems into police work, and for agreat variety of other actions to strengthen lawenforcement, as discussed in the report of the Na-tional Crime Commission. He recommended theenactment of legislation which would, for example,authorize Federal support for institutes for educa-tion in law enforcement and for higher salaries forcriminal justice personnel where associated withspecial training or innovative programs.

The Steel Industry Program

The steel industry, in cooperation with the De-partments of Labor and of Health, Education, andWelfare, is law-A-ming a series of projects to pro-vide upgrading training for present steelworkers,together with intensive education and training fornew recruits, including many members of minoritygroups, drawn largely from among the hard-core unemployed.

Current shortages of qualified steelworkerspartly reflect the educational deficiencies of manyworkers now in the industry and also of thosepresently unemployed. Often workers with longservice in the industry lack the education requiredfor training ar.d advancement to higher level jobs.With appropriate refresher or upgrading training,however, such employees could qualify for promo-tion to more highly skilled jobs or movement intothe companies' apprenticeship programs. Andmany unemployed persons who do not now meethiring standards could be helped to qualify forentry jobs through a combination of basic educa-tion and skill training.

Seven major steel companies, the SteelworkersUnion, and the Government have therefore collab-orated in developing a series of training projects.The Departments of Labor and of Health, Edu-cation, and Welfare will provide the educationand training resources and training allowancesnecessary to support an MDTA pilot program at

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steel plants in Baltimore and Chicago. The com-panies will join with the Government agencies inplanning and conducting the training. The unionwill also cooperate in the program, providingspecial assistance in motivating workers toparticipate.

It is expected that, after evaluation of a varietyof project designs to be tested in the pilot phase,the 'industry will continue and expand the pro-gram. Other industries with similar problemswill watch the steel industry's experience closelyto see whether the approaches developed arebroadly applicable to other fields of work.

This project represents an important step inapplying Government-sponsored training pro-grams to the needs of a whole industry and in ally-ing the schools and private industry in a joint ef-fort to meet workers' educational and trainingneeds. It also means the enlistment of industryand organized labor in an attack on hard-core un-employment which, if extended, could have a sig-nificant effect on some of the most difficult man-power development problems confronting theNation.

THE OIC PROGRAM

The Opportunities Industrialization Center(OIC)developed in Philadelphia by the pioneer-ing and resourceful pastor of a Baptist church,Rev. Leon Sullivan, with local, Ford Foundation,and MDTA supporthas become the model for agrowing number of similar community organized,largely minority group led programs. In thelatter part of 1966, the OIC approach was ex-tended on a demonstration basis to eight othercities, primarily smaller ones 'in which there wereas yet quite limited manpower training programs :East Palo Alto-Menlo Park, Calif.; Erie andHarrisburg, Pa.; Little Rock, Ark.; OklahomaCity, Okla.; Roanoke, Va.; Seattle, Wash. ; andWashington, D.C. Planned enrollment is 400 to1,200 a year, varying by city size. Funding isjointly by the Departments of Labor and ofHealth, Education, and Welfare under MDTA andthe Office of Economic Opportunity under itsCommunity Action Programs.

The OIC stresses "self-help." With a motiva-tional motto, "We Help Ourselves," it seeks finan-cial donations locally and uses volunteers exten-sively. Its leaders have been primarily ministers,

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but it draws on nonchurch leaders as well, endseeks employer participation and donations ofequipment and instructional aid. While much ofthe focus is on Negroes, purposeful efforts aremade also to have white leaders, staff, and trainees.Trainees are not paid allowances.

The program has two chief parts, a "feeder"system and a skill training center. The feedersystem (a) screens all applicants, (b) providesthose deemed to need it with basic education andinstruction in minority group history, workorientation, and good grooming, and (c) makesreferrals to needed services of other agencies, di-rectly to employment, to MDTA or other trainingopportunities, or to the OIC skill center. Mostenrollments in the feeder pr,skill training are for2 to 4 months.

The skill training centers' courses vary by city,but usually include electronics assembly, auto re-pair, machine shop, drafting, and secretarial train-ing. Courses average about 6 months.

Literally dozens of additional OIC's have beeninitiated on a small scale in other cities withoutFederal funding, concentrating on feeder instruc-tion alone, with largely volunteer staff. Plans arebeing developed for enlargement with Federal sup-port in some of these cities during 1967.

VOCATIONAL EDUCATION

A great expansion and redirection of vocationaland technical education is now underway underthe Vocational Education Act of 1963. Theexpansion in facilities and far-reaching improve-ments in program content now in process shouldhelp greatly to meet the immediate training needsof youth and adults and, at the same time, to meetfuture demands for trained workers in a variety ofoffice, distributive, trades and industrial, service,and technical occupations. Since the vocationalschools provide most of the institutional trainingin MDTA projects, current advances in vocationaleducation can also help to strengthen these projects.

Enrollments in vocational education courses in-creased to more than 6 million in fiscal 1966in-cluding about 430,000 post-high school students,double the number enrolled in the previous year.The demand for training still exceeds capacity.However, construction of area vocational schoolsis beginning to relieve some of the pressure; thenumber of such schools increased from 405 in

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fiscal 1965 to 756 in fiscal 1966. Besides providingfull-time vocational education, these schools oftenenroll students who continue their academic edu-cation at nearby high schools and receive occupa-tional training in the well-equipped shops andlaboratories of the area schools.

Of particular importance in preparing youngpeople for occupations with a present or prospec-tive need for workers is the new flexibility in vo-cational school curriculums. Some 2,000 second-ary schools recently established new occupationaltraining programsincluding training in suchnew fields as radiography, fluid power, instru-ment maintenance, and optical Pechanic,s. At thepost-secondary level, programs are being intro-duced or expanded in many occupations withacute personnel shortages, including nursing,dental hygiene, and X-ray, laboratory, and engi-neering technicians. Adult programs now includemore than 2.5 million workers in programs for ini-tial entry into or advancement in the work force.

Progress is underway also in developing pro-grams tailored to the special needs of disad-vantaged groups, such as inmates of correctionalinstitutions, adults who lack basic education, andschool dropouts.

Personnel Recruitment and Development

The expansion and reorientation of vocationaleducation have brought an increased demand forqualified teachers, teacher educators, adminis-trators, researchers, counselors, and other trainedpersonnel and have also created an acute need toupdate the skills of present personnel. The identi-fication of new occupations and the modificationof teacher preparation programs in universitiesand colleges are being strongly supported by theDepartment of Health, Education, and Welfarethrough research grants. In the summer of 1966,HEW also sponsored training institutes andworkshops structured to meet the needs of thesedifferent groups and particularly to familiarizeexperienced teachers with emerging fields such aspsychiatric nursing, home care, machine-tool in-strumentation, and numerical control.

To aid in the redirection of the MDTA pro-gram toward training of the disadvantaged, manyState education departments have arranged forretraining or reorientation for vocational educa-tion teachers in techniques found to be useful in

teaching students who are deficient in basic edu-cation as well as occupational skills. Other spe-cial programs and conferences have also focusedthe interest of vocational counselors on noncollege-bound youth. And three regional conferences oneducation, training, and employment (coordi-nated by the Research Council of the Great CitiesProgram for School Improvement, with the aidof a Vocational Education research grant)brought together school personnel and representa-tives of business, industry, labor, and governmentto consider the reshaping of vocational educationin accordance with the changing economic and so-cial environment of cities.

Vocational Education Research

Under the Vocational Education Act of 1963,10 percent of the funds appropriated are to be de-voted to research and development. This ear-marking has led to widely varied research, seekingbetter ways to reach and train young people andadults from severely deprived backgrounds. Tocite a few examples :

In the Bedford-Stuy tresant section of Brook-lyn, '1 demonstration training center (privatelyoperated and funded jointly by the Departmentof Labor, the Department of Health, Education,and Welfare, and the Office of Economic Oppor-tunity) is applying new techniques to the voca-tional, educational, and social skills training of600 jobless out-of-school youth, and seeking soundmethods for producing positive attitude and be-havior changes.

Another important project, at Florida StateUniversity, will attempt to develop a computer-based literacy-training program of reading, writ-ing, and numerical skills for grade levels twothrough seven. The project is designed to prepareand pretest a computer-assisted instruction pro-gram for teaching prevocational literacy skills toilliterate adolescents and adults.

In an attempt to bring to vocational educationthe newest developments in educational technol-ogy, a number of research and demonstration proj-ects are being supported, involving computer-assisted instruction, closed-circuit television, andother new teaching media. One important projectat Stanford University is attempting, throughcomputer scheduling, to adapt vocational educa-tion to the individual needs of students. Rutgers

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University is working on development of a modelfor a technological center to help keep vocational-technical teachers up to date in their fields ofspecialization. Another project involves the useof films on human relations for inservice trainingof teachers preparing to teach the disadvantaged.

Other projects are aimed at the development ofcost-benefit measurements to evaluate the relativemerits of vocational versus other kinds of educa-tion. Still others explore new approaches to in-creasing the supply of vocational and technicaleducation teachers, such as the utilization of re-tired military personnel and of technicians inprivate industry.

Curriculum Development

Under the stimulus of the 1963 act, massive cur-riculum changes in vocational education are alsopossible and underway, aimed at orienting it moreclosely to current and emerging employment re-quirements. Although most of the curriculum re-search projects have so far been small and frag-mented, directed toward particular subject-matterareas, pilot efforts to redesign entire curriculumsare beginning to be much in evidence.

In the San Francisco Bay area,? for example, 19high sc.ho7 /9 whose students come from pried

c)nomic, and 4; hnic backgrounds %A; nowOttiag a program ithtiated in Richmond, Calif.( in a project coordinated by the Center for Tech-pica]. Education, affiliated with San Francisco

State College). The Richmond program cameabout when a group of high school teachers,financed by private foundation funds, met all sum-mer to face the question too often in the minds ofstudents: "Why in the world do I have to learnthis V" The result was a plan of teaching relatedto the "real world." Instead of separating lessonsunder such labels as physics, mathematics, Eng-lish, and shop, they used a sound synthesizer as-sembly kit as a basis for integrating the requiredknowledgemanual skills, sound-and-wave the-ory, the mathematics relating to the speed of soundand the plotting of curves, and the English neededfor technical reports. A pinhole camera similarlyled to new and interrelated learning. Disciplineproblems disappeared. And many of Richmond'spotential dropouts went on to junior college. Inthe present 19-school experimental program, atleast 78 percent of the students, all potential drop-outs, say they are interested in going on to highereducation.

This kind of approach points to a direction ofreal significance for the future. An advisorygroup, made up of outstanding educators, socialscientists, leaders in the curriculum developmentfield, and representatives of other disciplines, re-cently recommended to the Department of Health,iMucation, and Welfare that the total curriculummust be redefined to meet the needs of studentswho do not now go on to college or are notequipped with occupational skills when theygraduate from high school.

Meeting the Problems of Special Groups

The country's jobless and disadvantaged work-ers include many diverse groups. Most share thehandicaps of inadequate education and lack ofskill, and thus can benefit from the training andother programs already discussed. But specialprogram adaptations and additional measures arefrequently required to meet adequately the specialneeds of different groups such as unemployed olderworkers, American Indians, migratory farm-

7 Bernard Ashen, "Case Studies in Change: New Directions inVocational Education" (Washington : U.S. Department of Health,Education. and Welfare, Office of Education, in process).

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workers, and prison inmates. Significant ad-vances have been made in the past year in aidingseveral of these groups.

OLDER WORKERS

Special provision for counseling, training, andplacement services for older workers is called forby a 1966 amendment to the MDTA.

For a further discussion of the specialised employment prob-lems of older workers, see 16I6 Manpower Report, pp. 70-71.

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This amendment was designed to help remedya previous imbalance in MDTA programs. In1968, workers aged 45 or over represented only 10percent of all MDTA trainees, although more than25 percent of all unemployed workers, many ofthem long-term unemployed, were in this agegroup. The relatively low representation of olderworkers in the training projects has been duepartly to the legislative mandate that MDTAtraining must be in occupations where there isreasonable prospect of employment. Neverthe-less, MDTA demonstration projects have shownthat older workers can profit substantially fromoccupational training. Trainees in the 45-and-over age group have been almost as successfulas younger ones in obtaining work.

Action to increase training and related servicesto older workers has been of three kinds.

First, the proportion of MDTA training oppor-tunities earmarked for workers past 45 is being in-creasedto a goal close to their proportion of theunemployed. Difficulty in achieving this level isforeseen, however, unless aggressive efforts to cre-ate jobs for the workers accompany their recruit-ment into training.

Second, a marked expansion is underway inservices to older workers through the public Em-ployment Service system. Projects involving theestablishment of special older worker service unitsin local Employment Service offices are already op-erating in five metropolitan areas, and similarprojects will be set up in 20 more major cities be-fore the end of fiscal 1967. By 1970, it is plannedthat similar units will be operating in each of the56 largest metropolitan areas.

These units offer older workers intensified coun-seling and placement services and opportunitiesfor referral to training, and also make extensiveefforts to develop job openings for them. Neededhealth and other supportive services are suppliedby cooperating community organizations. Andthrough self-help groups, unemployed older work-ers are encouraged to share their jobseeking ideasand experiences, and learn new job-hunting tech-niques under the guidance of skilled counselors.

These improvements in employment services inthemselves can have only limited effects, however,on increasing overall employment of older work-ers: The availability of job opportunities must beincreased by anticipating needs in areas of em-ployment expansion, such as those resulting fromnew Federal programs, and by the creation of job

opportunities with public and nonprofit agencies,which will also help to meet community needs, asin health services and slum rehabilitation.

Third, a series of E&D projects has been set upto develop and test new methods of increasingolder workers' employability and helping themfind jobs. These projects are exploring, for ex-ample, the use volunteers to reach older workersand to develop job opportunities; the extent towhich the employment needs of workers over 60can be met by mobilizing existing community re-sources; and the development of new techniquesfor motivating older workers to enter training.Another project demonstrates that employers canbe persuaded to relax rigid age restrictions. It isexpected that the techniques judged most effectivewill be incorporated into Employment Serviceoperations in order to contribute to a general im-provement in services to older workers.

Action to aid older workers will be furtherstrengthened during 1967 by direction of the Presi-dent. In his January 23 message to the Congresson Older Americans, the President stated that theNation must end arbitrary age limits on hiring.And he directed the Secretary of Labor to estab-lish more comprehensive counseling and placementservices for older workers through the Federal-State Employment Service system.

AMERICAN INDIANS

The inordinately high rate of unemploymentamong American Indians, particularly those wholive on reservations, is a matter deserving nationalattention. Some reservations have unemploymentrates above 70 percent of the tribal labor force.Among the 100,000 Navajos, largest of theTribes, unemployment stood at 45 percent in March1966, according to a survey by the Bureau of In-dian Affairs. In addition, there is a large amountof underemployment on the. reservations.°

To assess the manpower services available to dealwith these critical problems, a survey of the 25State Employment Service offices which serve res-ervation Indians was made in October 1966. Alloffices reported some activity in testing, counsel-ing, and placement of Indian students and somespecial recruitment of Indians for agricultural

For further dis.:ussion of the economic problems of AmericanIndians and the programs designed to improve their status, con-ducted by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Department of the In-terior, see 1986 Maftpower Report, pp. 74-75.

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and construction work. Some MDTA trainingand demonstration projects were also being con-ducted in cooperation with the Bureau of IndianAffairs, and some efforts were being made in co-operation with employers and other State agenciesto attract and staff industrial plants near Indianreservations. Because of restrictions on racialidentification, only nine States had specific data onservices to Indians; in these States, 23,466 place-ments of Indians were made in fiscal 1966. Therewas consensus among the States that much morecan and must be done. The need for additionalpersonnel and for funds for outreach and trainingof interpreters was emphasized.

As a result of these findings, all States withsizable Indian populations or reservations wereasked to develop plans, as part of their Human Re-sources Development programs, for expansion andimprovement of their services to Indians, whetherliving on or off reservations. All have submittedplans, and additional staff is being made availablefor this specialized program.

Additional improvements are being developedin line with recommendations submitted at theFirst National Conference on. Manpower Problemsfor Indians, held at Kansas City, Mo., in Febru-ary 1967. Leaders of about 200 Tribes and renre-sentatives of various Federal and State agenciesand private organizations attended the conference,which was sponsored by the U.S. EmploymentService. The recommended directions of actioninclude developing better lines of communicationbetween the Employment Service and Indianleadership, and efforts to give reservation Indiansfull access to all Federal and State manpowerservices.

MEXICAN AMERICANS

One of the most notable new efforts to developan effective attack on employment problems ofMexican Americans, the largest minority group inthe Southwest, was initiated late in 1966 throughOperation SER (Service, Employment, Redevel-opment).

Funded jointly by the Department of Labor andthe Office of Economic Opportunity, this projectseeks to "enhance and draw on the capabilities ofmajor organizations representing Spanish Ameri-cans in order to develop programs to broaden em-

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ployment opportunities for the Spanish Americanminority." The project is under the direction ofmajor Mexican American organizations: TheLeague of United Latin American Citizens(LULAC), the American GI Forum, and theCommunity Service Organization (CSO) .

SER has a staff, based in Albuquerque, whichwill promote and develop manpower ,programs forfunding and provide technical assistance necessaryto initiate such programs. It has also establisheda regional job skills bank.

The regional staff is to be supplemented in somecities by small local offices, which will undertakethe detailed program development in these com-munities in close consultation with the State Em-ployment Service and local Community Actionagencies to link the new programs to overall localefforts. These offices will also initiate local jobs-and-skills rosters and referrals for MexicanAmericans to broaden the activities of the regionaljob skills bank.

This effort is for five southwestern States : Ari-zona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, andTexas. The focus is on urban areas, with 11 citiesdesignated as likely areas for development of localcenters in primarily Mexican American neighbor-hoods, either as an identifiable part of establishedmanpower programs or as additional separate cen-ters, to provide information, referral, training,and placement assistance.

To assure that such programs to expand oppor-tunity for the Mexican American minority arebuilt into overall plans and allocations of re-sources for manpower programs in the Southwest,SER representatives will participate in State andlocal MDTA coordinating committees.

The Office of Economic Opportunity has alsofunded a statewide program in New Mexico forfarmworkers, mostly Mexican Americans, underwhich 1,500 adults will receive full-time basicand prevocational education. Under a similarprogram in Arizona, the 0E0 and the ArizonaCouncil of Churches are providing some part-timebasic education for several thousand farmworkersand full-time basic education for 100 farmwork-ers, mostly Mexican Americans. Similar pro-grams in Oregon and California, carried outthrough a variety of public and private agencies,provide part-time basic education for severalthousand workers.

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TEXAS MIGRATORY 'WORKERS

Workable answers 19 the employment and re-location problems of the largest concentration ofmigratory workers in the Nationthose in Texasare now being sought cooperatively by a groupof Federal, State, and local government agen-cies. The need for this joint action program wasdemonstrated in fiscal 1966. With Office of Eco-nomic Opportunity funds, the Texas EducationAgency developed -In adult education program de-signed to raise the educational level of 3,000 mi-grant farmworkers to as near the eighth grade aspossible. Some vocational training was includedbui, not enough to equip the workers to enter newoccupational fields, and most of the "graduates"drifted back into the migrant stream, better edu-cated than before but without marketable skills.

The target population is a limited group drawnfrom the State's more than 125,000 migrant work-ers, the majority of whom are home-based insouth Texas, with the heaviest concentration inthe lower Rio Grande Valley. Mechanization israpidly shrinking their opportunities for farm-work, their present earnings average less than$1,200 a year, and their only skills are becomingobsolete. Besides having a low educationallev i, most of them have a language problem.Since the areas where they live are not industrial-ized, there is insufficient local demand to warrantlarge-scale training for employment in the area.Many of these workers are reluctant to move, be-cause of family and community ties. The avail-ability of low-cost housing (even though oftensubstandard) in their present communities alsokeeps them tied down there. Yet training plusmigration to industrial areas frequently representtheir only substantial hope for employment andindependence.

Plans for joint action, to commence early in1967, were drawn against the background of thesefacts aid ' the 1966 experience. The new plancalls for some expansion in the size and content ofthe OEO adult education program for this group,and for a steady flow of trainees from this pro-gram into MDTA training for occupations,located largely in other areas, which promise ade-quate starting pay, regular employment, and achance for advancement. And it calls for sup-portive services all along the way.

The total number of trainees under the OEOprogram will be increased to 4,200 from last year's

3,000. The courses will be open to other seasonalfarmworkers as well as migrants. Major emphasisis being placed on adequate preparation of traineesfor entry into MDTA programs, and it is estimatedthat about half the 4,200 trainees will be able tomeet the requirements within a 6-month period.

DISADVANTAGED SERVICEMENAND REJECTEES

Prior to 1966, more than one-third of all youngmen reaching military service age were being re-jected for military service, about half of them be-cause of low scores on the mental aptitude testsand the remainder mainly for failure to meetmedical fitness standards.

After a thorough review, the Department ofDefense decided late in 1965 on a carefully phasedrevision of the mental aptitude test requirements.Revisions in November 1965 and in April 1966 per-mitted the induction or enlistment of a total of50,000 men who would not have been eligiblepreviously.

As a result of this experience, the Secretary ofDefense announced a more intensive and sustainedprogram, named Project One Hundred Thousand,under which the mental aptitude test standardswere further reduced in October and December1966. Starting in February 1967, the militaryservices will start accepting enlistments of menwith physical defects which can be remedied in ashort period of time by minor surgery, physicalconditioning, or diet.

During the 12-month period begun in October1966, 40,000 men will be accepted under these re-vised standards, and the goal for subsequent yearsis acceptance of 100,000 men per year who wouldnot have qualified under the policies in effect be-fore October 1966.

Project One Hundred Thousand has severalclosely related objectives. It is designed first toinsure a more equitable sharing of the militaryservice obligation among young men otherwiseeligible for service. It recognizes that the militaryservices now have an established capability foreffectively training and utilizing individuals withmarginal scores on the mental aptitude tests, aswell as individuals with certain remediable medicalconditions.

Finally, the policy recognizes that the highly de-veloped training system of the military services

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can help to raise the skill level of disadvantagedyouth, and enable them to perform more effectivelyboth in military service and in future civilian ca-reers. Entrants into military service who are edu-cationally deficient will be strongly encouraged topursue basic education while in the service and totry to qualify for high school equivalency certifi-cates. They will be given opportunities for as-signment to a wide range of military occupationalduties, many having close counterparts in the ci-vilian economy. Current plans provide for carefulmonitoring of the progress of these entrants, bothduring their military service. and in subsequentcivilian employment.

On the civilian front, an encouraging pilot pro-gram for rejected volunteers has been carried outsince 1964 through the National Committee onChildren and Youth and the Employment Serv-ices in Baltimore and Washington, D.C., and isnow being extended to several other cities. TheBaltimore and Washington projects provided re-medial education and counseling services for 2,200youth who failed to pass the Armed Forces Quali-fication Test when they attempted to enlist. Theaim was to improve the general skills and employ-ability of the youth and also to enable many ofthem to pass the AFQT on a second attempt.

A followup study shows that 20 percent ofthem, subsequently qualified for military service.In addition, 10 percent returned to school, 37 per-cent were employed, and 13 percent entered theJob Corps, Neighborhood Youth Corps, or coachclasses for manpower training. Only 17 percenteither were unemployed or could not be located atthe time of the survey.

The projects for rejected volunteers supplementthe Employment Service program for outreach andservice to draft rejectees instituted in 1964. In fis-cal year 1966, more than 41 percent of the 42,000underemployed or unemployed rejectees inter-viewed were placed in employment (22 percent) orreferred to training (19 percent) .

PRISON INMATES

The doors of prisons and jails, which usher menout to freedom only to close thousands of them inagain after brief intervals, have long been symbolsof an unmet social need. It is futile indeed to keepa man behind bans for the stated time and thensend him back, almost penniless, to the environ-

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went from which he cameno better prepared toearn an honest living than before or, if prepared,with little prospect of getting and keeping a job.Yet prison facilities for social rehabilitation andfor skill training relevant to today's job markethave been largely inadequate or nonexistent.

With the hope of providing prisoners with morefruitful preparation for return to civilian life,plans were nearing completion at the end of 1966for a pilot training program for prisoners, as au-thorized by a 1966 amendment to the MDTA.Stimulating this legislation and the resulting ac-tion are the findings of MIRA research and FADprojects Several have shown the feasibility oftraining programs for prison inmates and theeffectiveness of these programs in vocational re-habilitation, provided that they are carefullyplanned and accompanied by extensive supportiveservices.

The first MDTA-supported project, jointlyfinanced by the Department of Labor and the NewYork City Department of Corrections, was in themunicipal jail on Rikers Island in New York City.And projects have since been conducted or are cur-rently underway in seven other correctional insti-tutions in five States." Research evidence from theRikers Island study indicates that young offenderscan benefit from programs of vocational instruc-tion and remedial education, even though they arein jail for short periods of time. This study alsopoints up the urgent need for intensive efforts atjob development and placement to overcome theformer inmates' handicap of a prison record.

The E&D project conducted at the Draper Cor-rectional Center in Alabama provides a good ex-ample of the constructiveeven dramaticresultswhich can be achieved. This project concentratedon giving offenders sustained incentives to under-take and complete training, so as to secure a steady,legitimate job after release. It was found that themany inmates deficient in basic education couldbe readied for vocational training in less than 6months (for example, as welders, barbers, radio-TV repairmen, and technical writers) . Compa-nies hiring the first group of released trainees were

loThe theoretical bases and some oreliminary findings of theseand other project, were outlined in the 1211 Report of the Sec-retary of Leiter os Maapotoer Research and !Wining Under theManpower Development and Treiship Act (Washington : U.S.Department of Labor, March 1906), pp. 98-47. Bee also Trots-bp Neale in Correctional /setitstione (Washington : U.B. De-partment of Labor, Manpower Administration, Mee of Man-power Policy, =valuation, and Research, April 1966), ManpowerResearch Bulletin No. 8.

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reported anxious to hire more. Within a relativelyshort period after the inmates were released,recidivism had amounted to only 19 percent amongthe former trainees, compared with 65 to 70 per-cent among men released before the training pro-gram began or currently released without training.

Under a new MDTA pilot program, trainingwill be provided in fiscal 1968 and 1969 for 5,000inmates broadly representative of those in Fed-eral, State, and local institutions. Most of thetraining will be given on the prison site, altl. ughit may be given elsewhere in cases where work-release laws exist. For offsite training, inmatesmay be enrolled in ongoing MDTA. courses.Remedial education and prevocational trainingwill be provided as necessary. Flexibility in de-signing projects to meet individual needs and intrying out techniques of instruction will be en-couraged. And counseling, individualized place-ment services, and followup after release will beemphasized. The training is to be for occupationsin which the demand for workers is widespread,not merely local, since many of the released inmateswill wish to seek jobs in places distant from thecorrectional institution.

Incentive payments of $20 a week, plus depend-ency allowances, will be paid to the accounts oftrainees in some projects, to test their effect inmotivating prisoners to complete training andotherwise aid in rehabilitation. However, most ofthis money will be held in reserve, to be paid tothe inmates as "gate money" upon release.

This program is being planned with the co-operation If the Federal Bureau of Prisons andthe U.S. Office of Education, as well as the publicEmployment Service and other interested agencies.The widespread inquiries already received fromState and local correctional officials give assuranceof their broad participation and support

Pioneer work with offenders is also being under-taken by the Vocational Rehabilitation Adminis-

tration of the Department of Health, Education,and Welfare. Enlargement of the definition ofphysical and mental disability to include behav-ioral disorders has stimulated the establishment ofvocational rehabilitation units within correctionalinstitutions and in parole and probation settings.Among the services provided are diagnostic eval-uations, counseling, work adjustment training,physical restoration services, job placement, andfollowup counseling. By the end of 1966, mostStates had vocational rehabilitation programsserving the public offender.

Since 1961, the Vocational Rehabilitation Ad-ministration has supported 38 research and dem-onstration projects which have the public offenderas the focus of service or investigation, or both.The most comprehensive is the Federal OffenderRehabilitation Program. Developed in coopera-tion with the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, the FederalProbation Service, and the U.S. Board of Parole,this series of projects is evaluating the effective-ness of different methods of providing vocationalrehabilitation services to the public offender, soas to provide a firm basis for future programdevelopment.

The VRA has also made training grants de-signedsigned to increase the number of rehabilitationexperts experienced in working in correctional in-stitutions. And under the Correctional Rehabili-tation Study Act of 1965, it is helping to financea 3-year program of research on personnel prac-tices and needs in the field of correctionalrehabilitation.

Under the program recommended by the Presi-dent in his special message on Crime in the UnitedStates, additional Federal aid would be providedfor innovative State and local programs to developnew rehabilitation techniques and personnel, aswell as for a great range of other efforts tostrengthen law enforcement and prevent crime.

New Administrative Policies

New administrative arrangements designed tomake manpower programs more effective were de-veloped during 1966. The first major step was tobring together appropriate agencies and staffsat

.rn-.- -fa_

national, State, and local levelsto plan a coor-dinated attack on the problems involved. Thisgave rise to the planning of a comprehensive ap-proach to manpower programs, involving the De-

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partments of Labor, Commerce, and Health, Edu-cation, and Welfare, and the Office of EconomicOpportunity. It resulted also in arrangements forjoint funding of many individual projects, so as toprovide a wider variety of services and more ade-quate financing for them. In addition, the prac-tice of setting national goals for the guidance ofStates and of requiring State plans for manpowerprograms for the year ahead was instituted duringthe year.

THE COMPREHENSIVE APPROACH

The need for a comprehensive coordinated at-tack on the problems of the disadvantaged by thevarious government agencies with relevant pro-grams has been a recurrent theme in this chapter.As evidence has grown that a many-faceted ap-proach is required to effectively aid the disad-vantaged, the competence and facilities of a grow-ing number of specialized agencies have beendrawn on. This trend has made possible moreflexible shaping of programs to meet humanneeds, particularly in urban slums. But it hasalso heightened the need for coordination of ef-fort, which was accordingly a major aim of man-power policy during 1966.

A Selected Cities Task Force consisting of mem-bers of the various manpower agencies of the De-partment of Labor had been established near theend of 1965. Its mission was to stimulate plan-ning and coordinate and expedite manpower ac-tivities in 21 major cities in order to increase theeffectiveness of the department's programs there.

The experience of such task forces led to thecreation in early 1966 of three-man teams rep-resenting the Departments of Labor and ofHealth, Education, and Welfare, and the Officeof Economic Opportunity. These teams wereassigned to 30 major metropolitan centers to assistlocal manpower groups "in utilizing in the mostefficient manner possible the resources available tothe community under Federal legislation."

The teams operate under the guidance of a sub-committee of the President's Committee on Man-power, composed of representatives of the Depart-ment of Commerce, the Bureau of the Budget,and the three agencies providing personnel for theteams. The teams' responsibilities include identi-fying unmet manpower and training needs, explor-ing existing Federal programs in their areas, and

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expediting action to effect any needed improve-ments. They also encourage community groupsto marshal both public and private resources toassure jobs and training for the community's job-less workers. Beyond that, they have as long-term goals achieving maximum participation oflocal and State agencies in the planning of man-power programs and the deployment of the avail-able resources and insuring that the programs socomplement and supplement one another thatmaximum benefit is obtained from each dollarspent.

An outstanding example of the need for andeffectiveness of a coordinated approach in meet-ing the complicated problems of disadvantagedgroups is provided by the Texas project for mi-grant workers discussed above. This projectentailed the following cooperative efforts in pro-graming and funding :

The Texas Employment Commission has se-lected the occupations for which workersshould be trained (taking into considerationlabor demand, educational requirements, andwage levels). It will also select the trainees,provide counseling services, and pay trainingallowances.

The 0E0 Community Action agency staff,trained by the Employment Commission, con-ducted employer surveys to further pinpointthe demand for workers. In addition, Com-munity Action agencies in various cities willassist in recruitment and referral of migrantsto the Employment Commission and will workwith the schools to motivate the trainees andencourage mobility. And they will provideextensive assistance in moving and in findingnew homes for families going to new areas toget jobs.

The Texas Education Agency is developingthe necessary training programs, including oc-cupationally oriented basic education.

The Department of Labor's Bureau of Ap-prenticeship and Training is developing theon-the-job training phases of the plan and iscooperating in arranging for coupled institu-tional and OJT programs.

The Economic Development Administra-tion of the Department of Commerce co-operated in the planning of training in twoareas of critical unemployment.

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State Manpower Development Plans, based onthe national guidelines and formulated with theadvice and assistance of the coordinating com-mittees, were dev eloped and submitted by allStates. These were reviewed by a National Inter-agency Coordinating Committee, consisting ofrepresentatives from the Departments of Labor,Health, Education, and Welfare, Commerce, andAgriculture, and the Office of Economic Oppor-tunity, which made recommendations to the LaborDepartment for approval, disapproval, or modifi-cation of each plan.

The new National-State Planning System hasthus made possible (1) concrete advance planningat the national level in accordance with nationaltrends and needs, (2) State and local advanceplanning which takes account also of current andprojected manpower needs at these levels, and (3)a formally coordinated approach to planning andconducting training programs, involving the vari-ous agencies and organizations at all levels. Inaddition, the system provides a background of in-formation for extension of the planning system toother manpower programs so as to achieve acomprehensive planning a--oroach.

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Toward the end of 1966, agencies administeringthe several closely interrelated manpower pro-grams decided to establish a system for jointlyand cooperatively planning their respective pro-gram operations for fiscal year 1968from thearea job market on up. The salient point in thisjoint undertaking is that it will aim at inclusionof all manpower-related programs in cooperativelocal and State planning, not just the MDTAprogram as was the case in planning for fiscal1967.

The new comprehensive Area-State ManpowerPlanning System is designed to put into the handsof State and local agencies information about allmanpower program resources expected to be avail-able to them in the next fiscal year, well beforethe year begins, so that they will be able to layout integrated programs for deploying theselimited resources against their most pressing man-power problems. On a national basis, this co-ordinated planning should make possible steadyprogress toward optimum allocation of resourcesin developing the potentialities and improvingthe utilization of unemployed and underemployedmanpower.

U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 11117-0-2112-21/7

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WHERE TO GET MORE INFORMATION

Copies of this publication or additional information on manpower programsand activities may be obtained from the U.S. Department of Labor's Man-power Administration in Washington, D.C. Publications on manpower arealso available from the Department's Regional Information Offices at theaddresses listed below.

John F. Kennedy Building, Boston, Massachusetts 02203341 Ninth Avenue, New York, New York 10001Wolf Avenue and Commerce Street, Chambersburg, Pennsylvania 17201Ninth and Chestnut Streets, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 191071371 Peachtree Street, NE., Atlanta, Georgia 3030951 SW. First Avenue, Miami, Florida 33130801 Broad Street, Nashville, Tennessee 372031365 Ontario Street, Cleveland, Ohio 44114219 South Dearborn Street, Chicago, Illinois 60604911 Walnut Street, Kansas City, Missouri 64106411 North Akard Street, Dallas, Texas 75201730 17th Street, Denver, Colorado 80202300 North Los Angeles Street, Los Angeles, California 90012450 Golden Gate Avenue, San Francisco, California 94102506 Second Avenue, Seattle, Washington 98104

MANPOWER ADMINISTRATIONOffice of Manpower Policy, Evaluation, and Research

Curtis C. Aller, Director