Archived: What Role Can Business and Industry Be Expected to Play?

A r c h i v e d I n f o r m a t i o n

The Diverse Forms of Tech-Prep: Implementation Approaches in Ten Local Consortia - 1995

XII. Emerging Issues - Continued

6. What Role Can Business and Industry Be Expected to Play in Tech-Prep?

Although early definitions of Tech-Prep and its authorizing legislation identified educational institutions as the central consortium members, in many sites schools and colleges seek out the involvement of employers, responding to several sources of encouragement. Literature on the role of employers as partners with schools in European apprenticeship systems has fueled interest in getting American employers to work with schools. Reports of employer roles in a few well-publicized U.S. youth apprenticeship programs have reinforced support for giving employers key roles in helping students develop technical and general workplace skills and in guiding the objectives of in-school activities. The School-to-Work Opportunities Act of 1994 has increased pressures to involve employers in local partnerships.

In the nation as a whole and in the 10 in-depth study consortia, business and industry are indeed providing support for Tech-Prep. Nationwide, three-fourths of local coordinators reported in fall 1993 that their consortia were receiving support from such groups (Silverberg and Hershey 1994). Consortium leaders in the 10 in-depth study sites consistently stressed the importance of cooperation, support, and active involvement of employers. Employer or industry representatives sit on governing boards, promote Tech-Prep, and in some cases help to select target occupational areas. Two central issues remain open, however, concerning the involvement of employers in Tech-Prep consortia:

Can employers provide workplace experiences as a routine or required part of Tech-Prep students' experiences?
What role can employers play in strengthening school-based components of Tech-Prep?

Feasibility of Requiring Workplace Experience in Tech-Prep. Employers already offer workplace experiences in a variety of ways that promote the aims of Tech-Prep consortia. In many consortium schools, employers continue to provide workplace opportunities through traditional co-op programs. Occasional or short-term job-shadowing experiences are sometimes offered by employers to help expose students to workplace environments. Some consortia have developed occupationally focused academies that include low-intensity volunteer work or more intensive workplace training or internships.

However, it appears that only in rare Tech-Prep consortia will employers be able in the near future to expand this role to make substantial workplace experiences routine for all Tech-Prep students. This conclusion is based on four observations:

Arrangements for Systematic and Intensive Workplace Experience Appear in Most Instances to Be Limited to Just One or Two Career Areas. These are often in health occupations or manufacturing technology, and benefit from the attention of a few major local employers. Extending workplace arrangements beyond one or two career fields often requires dealing with many small employers, which poses a difficult burden on the limited resources available for coordination between schools and employers.
Employers' Resources for Providing Workplace Experiences Are Limited and Uncertain. The in-depth study sites provide examples of even major U.S. corporations backing away from commitments to provide internships or apprenticeships. Even large employers appear willing to take on only a few students for placements involving structured training. Mid-size and small employers are typically willing only to accept students as part-time employees to support production. Although such arrangements can provide income and general work experience, they rarely expose students to a progression of skills related to their school program.
Not All Students Will Fit in the Available Workplace Experiences. After-school experiences may be impossible for some students because of family or other extracurricular commitments and transportation difficulties.
Some Consortia Face a Paucity of Local Employers. In many locations, particularly in rural areas or in economically depressed urban areas, there may be few local employers relative to the number of students who might be candidates for workplace experiences.

However, creative strategies can expand the number of students who gain some useful workplace experience. By organizing a continuum of workplace experience, including brief worksite visits as well as more intensive placements, consortia can potentially expand the total number of students who participate. Consortia can organize students as volunteers for community-based organizations or other public service, where they can gain some benefits of workplace experience. School enterprises can provide chances to develop technical skills, work habits, and business skills. However, each of these approaches requires a great effort at organization and coordination and is likely to affect only some Tech-Prep students. It would not appear to be realistic, therefore, to impose a rigid requirement that consortia involve all Tech-Prep students in workplace experiences. Even requiring that consortia provide any kind of workplace experience may be inappropriate. Rather than expend scarce resources on developing workplace experiences that may affect few students, some consortia may prefer investing in school-based programs.

Roles for Employers in Strengthening School-Based Components. Employers in some Tech-Prep consortia provide input to school-based program components as well as workplace experiences. Employer involvement has generally focused on:

Technical Curriculum. In several in-depth study sites, employers have provided ideas for changing technical curricula and refining definitions of required technical skills.
General Workplace Readiness. Employers have arranged and participated in school-based activities designed to enhance students' general workplace readiness--talking to students in school about workplace habits, assisting in mock interviewing sessions, and helping students learn to prepare resumes and job applications.
Equipment and Events. Employers in some sites have provided funds for laboratory equipment or special events for Tech-Prep students.

Despite the focus of employers' Tech-Prep contributions on technical curriculum and workplace readiness, employers most often describe basic academic skills as the missing ingredient in new young job candidates. In the sites we have observed, however, effective ways to involve employers in strengthening academic curricula are either given low priority or prove elusive.

To be sure, the study sites provide examples of employers helping with academic curriculum development in somewhat peripheral ways. In some sites, they have arranged for high school or college instructors to visit worksites or participate in worksite internships, to help them become familiar with workplace applications of the skills they teach. In several sites, employers reportedly provided definitions of target competencies to schools. Other than listings of required technical skills, however, employer input usually appears to consist of broad statements about academic skills and the kinds of work-style skills now commonly called the "SCANS skills." The challenge of figuring out what kind of curriculum can cultivate these skills effectively is generally left to school faculty. In most sites, employers' involvement in curriculum development involves reviewing and approving the decisions that teachers have made in adopting or developing new applied academics curriculum.

Although some educators and employers have argued that getting employers involved will help raise academic standards and achievement, school staff in the study sites are often uncertain about how or whether to involve employers more in defining academic curricula and programs of study. Several factors contribute to this uncertainty. Some consortium staff report that employers and educators approach the process of curriculum definition differently. Employers, they report, often focus quickly on narrowly defined skills and thus gravitate to specifying technical skills, while educators might start with broader definitions. Educators assume that curriculum development meetings will involve protracted discussions and that curriculum change is an evolutionary process, while employers are more likely to expect short meetings with tightly organized agendas and to believe that curriculum revision and implementation can be accomplished quickly. Concerns that educators might consider important in discussions of curriculum development--such as funding streams or requirements to accommodate special populations--are often of little interest to employer representatives.

Whether schools and employers will pursue ways for employers to play a more central role in strengthening academic curricula remains an open question. The evidence so far suggests that, to engage employers more deeply, consortia would have to identify contributions employers can make to academic curricula that draw on their strengths and expertise. For example, employers might be asked to identify exercises based on workplace tasks that require application of particular measurement, computational, or more complex mathematical skills. However, our observation to date suggests that while employers commonly provide on-the-job training, they are usually unaccustomed to developing formal curricular materials focusing on basic academic skills. As a result, schools are likely to remain the authors of their own academic curricula, and employer input in this aspect of Tech-Prep is likely to remain limited.
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[5. How Much Will Tech-Prep Change Postsecondary Programs?]

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