Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Apprenticeships give students job training Date: Mon, 2 Nov 92 15:45:13 EST Message-ID: \SE A;NATION \SS (WS) \HD Apprenticeships give students job training \BY Charles S. Clark \CR CONGRESSIONAL QUARTERLY Paul Nurkala entered his junior year of high school with one foot in the present and the other planted squarely in the future. The 17-year-old begins his day in West Bend, Wis., at 7:30 a.m. with the usual classes in American literature, government and math. By midmorning, however, Mr. Nurkala joins 11 other selected students in the school's graphics lab, where he learns the fundamentals of offset printing and photographic plate making. At noon, Mr. Nurkala reports for work at a local printing firm, where, unlike other employees, he is guaranteed exposure to a broad range of company operations. By 3 p.m., Mr. Nurkala is free for the day. "I'm not one who looks forward to going to school," he says. "But I like this because I don't have to spend four hours a night on homework." In two years, Mr. Nurkala will receive a certificate from the state attesting to his high school graduation and his job training. He will then be a likely candidate for a full-time job at the print shop, and he will have a range of other educational options from technical school to a four-year college. "The on-the-job training is the main advantage, and I get paid," Mr. Nurkala says. "And it leaves me a step ahead of the guys coming out of high school because I can run a one-color press." Mr. Nurkala is one of 23 students in Wisconsin's new youth apprenticeship program, a modern adaptation of a centuries-old concept that has been sparking interest around the country. Led by efforts in Wisconsin, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Arkansas, youth apprenticeship projects have sprung up in about 20 states since 1990. And more than 50 pilot projects have been sponsored by the Labor Department and such private groups as the National Alliance of Business in Washington. Both President Bush and Democratic challenger Bill Clinton have actively pushed for a national youth apprenticeship effort, although Mr. Clinton's plan is far more ambitious. Eight youth apprenticeship bills were introduced in the last session of Congress, and the subject is likely to gain more attention when the 103rd Congress convenes in January. "People are coming to see it's a very attractive training scheme - to learn by doing," said Robert Glover, an authority on apprenticeships at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas in Austin. "Most of the kids coming out of high school have relatively low problem-solving skills," said Paul Whitley, vice president of Tyson Foods Inc. in Russellville, Ark., which has just launched an apprentice program. "They have poor math skills, poor reading skills and poor communication skills. We're on a collision course as the labor market shrinks and the need for more and better skills increases." "In our country, for the 80 percent who do not attend or may not complete college, there is no defined path to a job or career," observed Rep. Carl Perkins, Kentucky Democrat, during July hearings on his School to Work Transition and Skill Standards Development Act. There is "only a hodgepodge of want ads, dead-end jobs and career counseling with no link to the job market or needs of employers." Though noble intentions permeate the apprenticeship movement, it meets with skepticism from unions, who worry about undercutting their decades-old apprentice program for older workers. Another question mark is the commitment of employers who profess an interest in education but spend far less on long-term training than their overseas rivals. And some educators question the wisdom of putting pressure on 10th-graders to commit to the noncollege, vocational route. But to its boosters, youth apprenticeship seems the ideal way to motivate aimless young people while offering businesses an invaluable resource: a long-term supply of employees with more up-to-date skills than those taught in traditional vocational education. "The Germans have a saying that if you're trained in something, it makes you easier to retrain," notes Mr. Glover. "Right now, our kids in high school don't see a connection between what they're doing in school and what happens afterward. We have to make that connection." * Distributed by Scripps Howard. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM