NLA Info: Turning Skills to Profit through Workplace Ed.

[Andres Muro]

David quotes from a report:

"This report, in no uncertain terms, lists the economic benefits to
employers of Workplace Education Programs: improved quality of work, 
better team performance, improved capacity to cope with change in the 
workplace, improved capacity to use new technology, increased output 
of products and services, reduced time per task, reduced error rate,
better health and safety record, reduced waste in production of goods 
and services, increased customer retention, and increased employee retention."

If this is the case, I am sure that the companies that are benefiting from higher productivity will share their gains with the workers. What troubles me is that a lot of the low skilled jobs have gone overseas and the present entry level jobs require higher skills. Yet, the present entry level jobs continue to pay low wages, and have become the new minimum wage jobs in the US. 

David writes:

"Those of you who believe that the public sector should be involved in
helping business"?????

I am not sure that the role of the public sector is to help the private sector. Even though this is how our city mayor thinks. He has taken the art resources budget away from the city to give it to the private sector. He has also proposed to privatize the library. Another mayor a few years back wanted our library to charge an entry fee in order to keep homeless people away. The same mayor cut our parks and rec. budget to give monies to the private sector...

Sorry for loosing it for a moment, but the little monies available in education  should be used to enhance and enrich our communities, not to help the private sector. I have heard the trickle down argument. However, people get richer and monies never trickle down.

Andres 






>>> David J Rosen <DJRosen at world.std.com> 11/11 12:38 pm >>>

NLA Colleagues,

A recent study by The Conference Board, entitled "Turning Skills into
Profit: Economic Benefits of Workplace Education Programs," answers 
the question: what is the return on investment to businesses 
which have workplace education programs?  The Conference Board, a 
business-oriented research organization whose purpose is to "improve the
business enterprise system and to enhance the contribution of business to 
society....interviewed employers, employees and union representatives from 
more than 40 private- and public-sector workplaces representing a 
cross-section of economic sectors throughout the United States."
Interviewees were selected from 45 national workplace education projects 
funded between 1995-1998 by the U.S. Department of Education, through its 
National Workplace Literacy Program.

This report, in no uncertain terms, lists the economic benefits to
employers of Workplace Education Programs: improved quality of work, 
better team performance,improved capacity to cope with change in the 
workplace, improved capacity to use new technology, increased output 
of products and services, reduced time per task, reduced error rate,
better health and safety record, reduced waste in production of goods 
and services, increased customer retention, and increased employee retention.

If this is so, one must wonder, why hasn't the business community - and
especially its various trade associations -- let Congress know that 
workplace education can help them, as well as their employees. Why was the 
business community silent at the sunset of the workplace education 
program? 

Those of you who believe that the public sector should be involved in
helping business (especially small-to-medium-sized businesses) and
organized labor to start workplace education programs, may wish to get
copies of this report and me sure the business community in your state
sees it.  You may wish to ask business and labor to support the creation 
of a new federally-funded workplace education program, one which continues 
to require a partnership approach of business, labor and education 
providers, and which continues to require that large companies
increasingly and ultimately pick up all of the program costs, but which
recognizes that small businesses and labor-sponsored programs may need 
ongoing public support.

The 15-page report, entitled "Turning Skills into Profit: Economic
Benefits of Workplace Education Programs," is available from the 
Conference Board, 845 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10022.

(And, for Rich, Catherine, and others who might wonder, I don't by any
means believe that the sole --or most important -- purpose of adult
education is vocational or work-related. I also don't believe that
workplace education should be limited to workplace-related basic skills.
I think there's room for a broad range of adult learner goals to be met
through workplace education.)

David J. Rosen
<DJRosen at world.std.com>