STW and Jobs in the 21st Century

More and more is being written about downsizing and outsourcing, both products of NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) and GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade), and the effect on the American job market.

Consistently, during the course of the "transformation" of our society and the restructuring of our education system to focus on producing workers for the 21st century work force, government entities, personnel and the media have marched to the constant roll of the "higher standards" drum beat.

But the writing was on the wall, early on, that this whole transformation was not about higher standards, higher paying jobs, a more literate populace, or a more intelligent populace. The warnings were there —

Here, vocational education is not simply teaching future workers the flexible job skills supposedly needed for the 21st century, for despite political and educational rhetoric to the contrary, most economic forecasts show that a large proportion of the jobs the modern economy is creating are low-skilled, part-time, and poorly paid.

Democratic Schools; Michael Apple and James S Beane; Alexandria: ASCD; 1995.

But in a broad survey of employment needs across America, we found little evidence of a far-reaching desire for a more educated workforce.

America's Choice: high skills or low wages!; National Center on Education and the Economy: Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce; 1990; page 26.

Many companies have moved operations to places with cheap, relatively poorly educated labor. What may be crucial, they say, is the dependability of a labor force and how well it can be managed and trained — not its general educational level, although a small cadre of highly educated creative people is essential to innovation and growth. Ending discrimination and changing values are probably more important than reading and moving low-income families into the middle class.

Thomas B Sticht, president and senior scientist, Applied Behavior and Cognitive Sciences, Inc; San Diego, CA; members SCANS; House Journal, 101st Congress, 1st Session, October 23, 1989.

— but the American people have been reticent to heed those warnings. The very documents that were the springboard for restructuring in Washington state made the case for where the whole of government managed workforce training (and retraining) was headed:

The table below shows the occupational areas which are expected to generate at least 20,000 new jobs between now and 2010. Thirteen of these occupational areas require some or most of their employees to have post-secondary training, including formal employer training, below the four year college level.

Occupational Area New Jobs

Food & Beverage Service 102,000

Sales Occupations 90,000

Managers & Administrators 74,000

General Office Occupations 56,000

Elementary Secondary Teachers 38,000

Transport & Material Moving Occupations 38,000

Health Diagnosing Occupations 37,000

Mechanics, Installers, Repairers 34,000

Construction Trades & Extractive Occupations 33,000

Health Service & Related Occupations 30,000

Cleaning & Building Services 26,000

Management Support Occupations 25,000

Engineers 24,000

Health Assessment & Treating Occupations 24,000

Secretaries & Typists 24,000

Industry Specific Support Occupations 24,000

Receiving, Scheduling, Dispatching Occupations 24,000

Protective Service Occupations 22,000

Source: Investment in Human Capital Study; Findings; December 1, 1990.

Be mindful that these are positions that require two years of higher education, not four years or a degree.

The following is Washington state's idea of a successful training program:

The evaluation found that 89 percent of program participants gained employment after completing training; 59 percent of students continued training into a second year; and the median wage obtained by graduates was $10.29 or 89 percent of their pre-job-loss wage. (High Skills, High Wages; Report to the Legislature; 1996).

Work it out in terms of $'s. A full time worker averages 173.3 hours per month, 2080 hours per year. At $10.29 per hour, gross monthly income would be $1783. As $10.29 per hour is 89% of their prior wage, their prior wage would have been $11.56 per hour, or $2004 per month; a difference of $221 per month, $2652 per year. How many families do you know that can make it on $2004 a month gross? $1783 a month?

If both parents must work to make ends meet, then obviously any children will be put in child care, which is rapidly being taken over by the state. To learn more about this, click here.

The bottom line with the restructuring of education to focus on workforce training, is that it is intended to produce a cooperative, collaborative, teamplayer, not too well educated, but willing to work for minimal compensation for the greater good of the collective whole.

September 1999; Lynn M Stuter

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