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I NEW CAREERS IN INDUSTRY Frank Riessman, Ph.D. Director. New Careers Dev<a::::.opment Center and Lita Paniagua Associate Resea:cch Scientist New Careers Training Laboratory New Yo:rk University Nov~mber 1967 I '-- ... �/ INTRODUCTION • I "Why not say we must train a million unemployed a year £or un£illed jobs that already exist?" I Bernard Asbell asks this cogent question in The New Improved American,* an analysis of the profound technological changes taking place in the United States. American paradox: He was referring to a puzzling an acute shortage 0£ workers coexistent with an acute shortage of jobs. - While industry spends billions seeking out and training skilled and pro£essional personnel, it also bears the costs 0£ a high ratio 0£ employee turnover, and helps to cover the huge losses caused to society through massive unemployment and underemployment 0£ the unskilled. The solution of these problems has become an urgent concern 0£ private enterprise in America. A New Careers program £or industry would embody Mr. Asbell's pract ical point 0£ view. The p r ogram's goal: the creation or a r ich resource 0£ industry-oriented, highly skilled manpower, the reduction of personnel tur nover, and the reduction 0£ unemployment i among t he low skilled. Its method : e xpansion or new approaches t o manpowe r rec :r ui tment, t r a i n i ng and , educat ion alrea dy being utilized by p riva t e enter prise , plus s tr uc t uring of visible oppor1 tunities £or p r omoti on , upgrading and horizonta l mobili ty £or all I workers. I A New Careers mode l £or indus try would require:

McGraw-Hill, New York,1965, p.43.

·a �-i..l ,- 1. Entry level positions in which workers can be immediately productive. j 2. Training iinl'ilediately available and intricately connected to these entry positions. 3. A visible career ladder between these entry positions and higher positions within the job hi~rarchy. 4. Releuant training and education £or higher positions directly available through the job. 5. Sharp integration o.f training and education, because education is decisive £or any major advancement. 6. The responsibility .for packaging this training to be undertaken by industry (or. by a subcontracted training resource), rather than le.f ·t to the wo:i:'ker. �NEW CAREEl~S IN INDUSTRY Private enterprise has moved to the forefront in the search for new designs th~t will close the gap between the shortage o:f I skilled manpower and the millions of joble£s. Traditional methods of personnel recruitment are not producing the workers industry needs fast enough and in su:f£icient numbers, and the cost o:f the persistent e££ort to £ind adequate help is high: The New York Times estimates the yearly volume o:f its helpwanted classified and display ads at $30 million. The Los Angeles Times' volume in help-wanted ads -is around $34. million. An officer of the New York Assn. o:f Personnel Agencies estimates that 85% of all jobs listed by private employment agenciE>s in New York City include payment of the agency fee by the employer. "Comparable high percentages of fee-paid jobs would be found in other major cities", the officer said. "Many agencies will not even list an opening unless the fee is paid by the employer. It's a worker's market." (The average fee is 10% of the first month's salary.) A survey 0£ hiring costs paid by 17 firms in the Rochester, N. Y. area (9 manufacturing and 8 non-manufacturing firms) indicates a total over 3 months (June and November, 1965 and February, 1966) of $278,000, with 2/3 of this amount reported by the manufacturing companies, and the balance by the nonmanufacturing. Average cost per hire was $222 for manufacturers and $138 £or non-manfacturers. 1 i Spurred by the urgency of' their requirements, business firms invest heavily in improving the skills ' and knowledge of their employees with educational and training programs: "· • • In 1965 3usiness Week estimated a total amount of $18 billion and Fortune gave a higher figure of $2~ billion (spent by private industry in this area). More recently, it has been estimated that industry spent $17 billion in 1 966 in this area. 11 2 I I l \ ' Natl . Indus tria l Con ference Boar d Record, "Hiring Cos t s ", New York, -:J,-a_:i_u_a_r_y_,--:l-::9,-6'"'7=--.----..;._-------""---,.12NAM Re port s , Natl. ! Assn. of Manufa cture r s , June 19, 1967. I ! " <JI �-2r ' A portion o:f these amounts was allocated to training programs designed to tap the unutilized potential of the nation's unskilled, I underemployed and unemployed labor force. Private enterprise has also begun developing innovative techniques of recruiting and hiring so as to bring the disadvantaged into the labor market. All indications point to the need for accelerating the drive to produce workers with sophisticated know-hoy.,. 11 • • • The importance o:f developing solutions to unemployment problems is • • • significant in light of projections of job needs to 1975 as prepared by the Bureau of Labor Statistics: while our population will increase by 16%, the labor force will increase by an estimated 20% to include 94.l million workers. 11 1 11 • • • About 230,000 skilled and 350,000 semi-skilled workers are expected to b e needed each year to replace those who re·ti:re or die." 2 Following are some manpower needs projected to 1975 1 based on studies that include patterns of demand and consumer purchasing, technological development, new products and industries. 3 Millions o :f Worlcer s Needed by 1975 and Employed in 1964 Manuf a cturing Professional 8, Technical Technicians, draftsmen, etc. Craftsmen, foremen, etc. Clerical Sales 1975 1964 23 13 1.4 11.5 17.3 14 10.7 4.5 5.6 a.5 .825 9 I I 1Natl. Assn. o f Manu:factureres , op. C1 t. 2 cc~up8.tional Outlook Hn.ncl1)oo k 1 Bull. I 14 50 ., U. s. Dept. of Labor, 1966-67, PP• 363-364. I 3compiled from Monthly Labor Review, March-April, 1965 1 u. s. Dept. of Labor, reprint 2462. '· \. �I i -3- / J In the face of such existing and :future needs, unemployment is intolerable. Nevertheless, the millions wl10 languish without work continue to burden the economy and scholars, legislators, ' civic organizations and the press consistently diagnose the frustra- tions of the unemployed as a leading cause of social disruption. Concern over the lack o:f work for the disadvantaged and the ancillary social ills this causes has brought forth many proposals £or emergency measures. The business community has become increas- ingly involved in the discussion and on August 2~, 1967 the Urban Coalition (a grouping of more than 800 community and business leaders £rom throughout the u. s.) called £or the creation of at least one l million "meaningful and socially useful" jobs. The intent 0£ the emergency measures suggested is laudable, but such proposals do not £ocus the problem so directly as does Bernard Asbell's apt phrase: "Why not say we must t rain a million unemployed a year :for unfilled jobs that already exist?" This approach establishe s a one-to.;,one relationship between i industry's demand for s killed workers I and the lack o:f work :for 1 The term "meaningful" must be .def ined in two directions . From the employer's viev.;point meanmg[..il work must supply a real need to his organization , help him to ma..~e a prof it and not be subject to turnover o f personnel. From the employee's viewpoint, meaning:ful work must do more than pay a wage. It must motivate him to ,remain on the job by giving him a sense of achievement and digni t y, realistic opportunities for steady advancemenjc and the assurance 0£ permanent employment and continuing employability. ' Socially useful work produces goods and services, promotes a higher standard of living, provide s fisca l ~evenue , creates stability, and .furthers the goals o.f society. Make ..:vJOrk and dead -end jobs accomplish .few of these aims, except temporarily ,1 principally because they do not encourage permanence; do not motivate the worker beyond achieving more than his weekly wage; do not build morale and loyaltyo �-4- the unemployed. As noted above, many firms are already actively exploring this direction. However, most programs do not yet go I far beyond equipping the workers to function at the semi-skilled and entry level. Until now there has not been a complete step by step linking of training and education from basic skills and knowledge to the highly skilled and middle management positions. To fully achieve such integration it is necessary to create I a practical program that will develop appropriate motivation in the unemployed or underemployed people so that they will not only accept entry level positions, but also become via education and training a reservoir of manpower for the middle line skilled, administrative, technical and even professional positions. A design for creating a New Careers program in industry for those now unskilled would utilize the availability or training for those thousands of openings as the incentive, the motivational impetus to bring the disadvantaged into the labor force. Xerox Corporation discovered in a recent experiment that good incentives i can attr a ct unsuspect ed numbers of per sons re a dy and willing to wo r k: ,hen Xer o x a nnounced that skill training and basic e ducation were available in its Project Step-Up, it found among the applicants four times as many persons who did not need the t raining than those who did, and was able to hire them imme d i ately a s r egular e mploye es.I 1 Telephone interview with J . '.les t brook MacPh e r son, ACSH, Manpo wer Resour c e s Admini s t rat o r , Xer ox Cor p. , Ro che ster , N.Y. This would s eem t o s uppo rt a st a t ement by econ omist Char l e s Killing s worth: "• • • it seems prcbable that impr cving employment prospects wou ld tend t o pull more people into the labor market and • • • raise the labor force participation rate." (Testimo ny before Senate Subcommission on Empl oyment and Ma npower Sept. 20, 1963.) 0 r 1 I ·.;, �-5- THE NfaJ CAREERS MODEL l As a solution to unemployment and the dire shortage of skilled and professional f Orkers in the public sector, the New Careers approach was introduced with the passage of the Nelson-Scheuer Amendment in 1966. This legislation provided for the hiring, job- training and education of nonprofessionals by the public service agencies in the fields of health, education and welfare. Under its provisions, persons hired from the disadvantaged community work as auxiliary personnel and can receiv2 time off from their jobs for education and training which will equip them to qualify for more responsible positions. All job classifications within the parti- cipating pub lie agencies are to be "careerized", that is redefined and restructured so that employees may move upward gradually toward semi-professional and professional levels as they acquire experience and the necessary high school and academic education arld credentials, part of which can be obtained during job time. The New York City Board of Education is developing career lines for its teaching personnel. A program of advanced trai ning and education v,i th released time from the job to attend cl ass es will enable entry-level teacher aides (nonprofessionals hi red from the disadvantaged community) to adva nce to assistant teacher, teacher inter n and certified teacher, with more responsibilities and higher salaries at each level. The Board has made !special arrangements with local colleges and universi t ies so that the auxiliaries will receive training, education and academic credit . I . In the private sector a similar iNe w Car eers p r ogram c ou ld be I es t a b lished with funds cont r i buted b ~ government o r pr i vat e fou n da1 t ion s t o such fi rms as de sired fin a n cial ai d. require the f o llo wi ng: I I j j Th e model wo uld �-6l. Entry level positions in which workers can be immediately productive. 2. Training ilJlI!lediately available and intricately connected to these entry positions. 3. A visible career ladder between these entry positions and higher positions within the job hierarchy. 4. Relevant training and education for higher positions directly available through the job. s. Sharp integration of training and education, because education is decisive for -any major advancement. 6. The employer (or a subcontracted training resource) to be responsible £or the packaging of this training and making it av21.ilable to the worker, rather than leaving the respons:i.bili -.:::11 for acquiring training and education up to the individual effort ofeach worker. In a sense the career incentive program would be directed toward the disadvantaged job candidate who asks, 11 ,Jhy should I take this dead-end beginning job which is boring, dirty ·and doesn't go anywhere?" The educational provisions would include making is possible for the employee to acquire basic knowledge (the 3 R's), high ' school equivalency and industry-related higher education leading I to academic degrees. Education would take place, in part, during I working hours with time released from the job for attending classes. The employee could adv.ance to semi-skilled , skilled or middle management and administrative positions as ,heacquired education and training provided by the company , and demdnstrated his capabilities. I I Funding for firms unable to carry the full costs of partici- ' pating in the program might be provided by government or private I �I -7foundations. Such funding would contribute toward entry level salaries, the special training and education programs, and outside technical assistance on such matters as setting up career line structures, providing supportive services, etc. l Private enterprise would have full autonomy on all aspects of administering su~h a proqram, including selection of personnel, development of training methods and educational curricula, choice of outside technical aid, if any is desired, and other components. INDUSTRY EXPLORES NE,J GROUND IN MANPO;!ER DEV~LOPMENT An interesting experiment in job-training with funds supplied by government and private industry is under way at vestern Electi:ic Co., in Kearny, N. J.: The u. s. Departments of Commerce, Health and Labor contributed $1 million and ten private companies contributed $340,000 to '..Jestern Electric's pilot training project which began operation in January, 1967. Each week 40 persons from the disadvantaged community are enrolled for a rotating 9 week course in basic education and technical skills to qualify for en'try jc'!)s in the metal industries. Instruct·o rs in basic educa~ion are supplied by the New Jersey State Dept. of Education and technical training is imparted by experts from the industry. Trainzes receive $41 per week while training, plus $5 per dependent. To 'd ate (Oct., 1967) 361 persons have completed the course and 216 have been hired by 70 companies in the Newark area. A spokesman for :,Jestern 2lectric believes that the program will continue permanently, with increasing participation by 1 private firms. He said, " ;e're telling them 'come on in, the water's fine'"• 1 Funding arrangements might be worked ! out on a scale of 90% of the above costs for the first year, with '. decreasing percentages in the following years, moving on toward 0% 1at some later point. Such a procedure is followed . by public service agencies and government under the New Careers Program in the public sector . I L �-8- Al though the ,!es tern Electric project is limited to preparing the trainees to qJalify only for entry jobs, this experiment might easily be expanded to include bot~ higher skill training and education to provide the industries of the area with a more specialized source of manpower. Even middle-size companies can benefit from facilitating educational opportunities to employees, as has been demonstrated by another program in the New Jersey -area: I \ .Jellington Printing Industries of Trenton, N. J. has found it practical and e~onomical to establish an educational incentive program which covers tuition and text-book costs (and tutoring when necGssary) for its eraployees who wish to obtain elementary, high school and college education. At present 10% of the 400 employees participate, and larger enrollments are expected in the coming term. Total cost to the company is considered "negligible". Business Manager Nathan Mayer says: "Some of our men have been able in only two years to acquire a high school diploma and _go on to college. Some who started as helpers on a machine crew two years ago now work as foremen. The program has supplied us with permanent, capable workers, and we plan to expand it." 11 :e put the program into effect not from a desire ne adds: to perform good works, but as a practical solution to our problem of not being able to find the skilled help we need." ,Jellington Industries also decided to discard conventional I methods of hiring. I Most applicants for entry positions are under- educated and unskilled. Mr. Mayer says: "We decided to adopt the policy of hiring on a first come, fir~t served basis and to eliminate the costly and often meaningless , effort spent on interviewing and testing. I Although he may be a capable, willing worker, a job I applicant from th", disadvantaged population may not know how to i I ' make a good impres,si.on in a:n intervieyv , and a poor previous work record may indica~e only that he had t ot had sufficient motivation �-9- r in the past to remain on a job. Our assumption is that a man who l is willing to work can be motivated to become a permanent employee I and to upgrade himself for positions that are increasingly valuable to himsel.f and to us." Although the .!ellington employees now attend school on their own time, the company's interest in helping them acquire an education and the visible opportunities £or promotion have motivated an encouraging number 0£ workers to take on the often dif:ficult task of attending classes. It is logical to s~ppose that with time on the job available for education a much larger number of workers would participate. Other companies make education available to their employees on company time: The DuPont Company recently completed its first experiment in providing basic education to its under-educated employees. Language skills wer e taught on company time to 46 veteran employ-aes who are now e ligible to take skill-training courses offered by GnPont. Thes e CO'l,;.rses are given to unskilled enployecs after 'they have passed an initial period of familiarization in the firm's labor pool. Instruction is on company time, two full days weekly. Trainees study at their o wn pace, with ·the help of a su.pe:?:visor who answers specific questions. After col"lplcting the training, the e.!llployces work in the division f or which they have prepared. Jorkers· can upgr ade thc~selves to perform higher s k ills leading to foreman positions by attending technical schools of their o wn 1:ime, but with aid from the company on tuition. The Pn::2.r0id Corpo:.:-ation of Cambridge, Mass. offers courses to it.5 e:upl oyees ranging fr om bas~c English and conversational Russ .L::\ .1 4~o polymer chemistry. ( There is no acade.nic credit • • g1.,;1-~;·: . .":<,C th.ase co·;;irses. )

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I I~ wou.l-3 seem f~asi!:>1:e i!\ each instance to link the instruction offered so that employees could ob-tain ,accredited education and higher I I skills to qualify t ? em for positions r , quiring more education and I expertiseo I I �.,---· I ? -10- The programs developed by private enterprise in working with j the under-educated are not limited tq heavy or- manu£acturing ! industries. ' Serv~ce institutions, such as banks, have also £ound it worthwhile to reach out to the disadvantaged £or recruiting workers and £acilitating education to them on the job. Chase Manhattan Bank established a job-training program in 1964 £or high school s~udents £rom the ha~d-core poverty areas. Many 0£ the trainees are potential drop-outs and have police records. Students entering the program at the junior year of high school receive 2l months 0£ basic education and instruction in banking and £inance. They attend classes at the bank from 2 to 5 p.m. daily and are paid $1.86 per hour. They continue to attend high school during the morning. Aft-2r g:cadua·i:ion they are hired for entry clerical positions. They may go on to college on their own time, with aid ~rom the bank via its tuition refund program. Xerox Corporation's Project Step-Up was another valuable demonstration of the response of the poor to a program that links education to employment. Project Step-Up was created to explore the fe a sibility of recruiting, hiring, training and giving remedial education to persons from the underprivileged community. The program was postulated on two basic assumptions: I I 1. It is good business, one that e nhances the pro£itmaking apparatus. 2. The company could cut a clear path for itself to a realistic solution for one of the nation's most complex problems: HovJ to open up skilled employment oppor tunities to the unemployed. j Many of the trainee s had police records, b ad credit ratings and spotty emp loym8nt hist o ries. i To qualify for training they had to be unemployed or underempioyed, receive substantially less than a pas s ing score on the ! company's regular employment te s ts and not have finished high school. (~ I The 19 week training period took place during the day-shift working hours.. 40% of the time was for classroom instruction, and the rest for work and informal counseling to support the new learning and adjustment to supervision and work ruleso Trainees were paid an hourly rate slightly below that for l I �-11\ .... regular new employees and were eligible for all company benefits. Al~ the trainees completed the program and qualified for regular employment. I Foremen reported that trainees adjusted well and met all standards. Xerox officials were impressed by the trainees' commitment, their perseverance and their overall reaction to the training, the work environment and to other employees. The regular employees strongly supported the program. A Xerox spokesman said that the program was economical because aside from the men who were trained, the company was able to hire immediately four times as many applic<L,ts who did not need training. Furthermore, he said, the company feels the program paid for itself with the new knowledge gained as to methods of recruiting and motivating disadvantaged employees. These techniques will now be applied by Rochester Jobs, Inc., an organization of 70 firms in the area which will act as a non-profit public service agency to hire, counsel and train workers from the underprivileged community. Many other firms in the U. s. have found that providing basic education to t heir employees is a worthwhile investment and that I t he cos t is not high. I A b a sic literary program utili z i ~ g audio - visual techniques developed by MI ND ( Met hods of In -tellectual Development , subsidiar y of Corn Product s, Argo, Ill.) costs $24 0 per per son , i f admin i stered by t he f irm purchasing the service , or $450 if adminis t e re d b y MIND . 1 Ac a demic escalat i ons of 4 gr a d e l e v els ean b e achieved with under - educ a t ed adult s in 1 60 hour s of MI ND's basic educat ion p r ogram . The c ost of e?ucat i ng a per son f , r us eful work whi ch will convert him fr om a recipient o f relief pri s ingly low: ( ... ~t o a tax-pay e r ma y be s ur- �-12A literary program established by the Chicago Board of Jelfare demonstrated that teaching reading and arithmetic skills to a person for five years costs less than his relief checl<l for a single month. Providing educational and specialization opportunities to upper echelon personnel has long been an established practice in private enterprise and many different types of models exist from the outright granting of leaves of absence and fellowships for postgraduate study to intensive short-term courses. National Training Laboratories reports that since 1956 more than 3,000 top and middle executives have been sent by their companies to NTL c0nters in Maine, Florida and Arizona to acquire proficiency in working with the complex human problems inherent in the management process. The American Foundation for Management Research has heavy advanced bookings for its Management Learning Center where companies send teams of their top executives for intensive training in problem solving via the team approach. · It would seem that with the tremendous demand for managers and professional personnel forecast for the years ahead, it would be to the best interest of private enterprise to expand its facilities I for upward education a nd mobility so ,that the potential of the now i lesser s kille d c a n b e tapped. A report by Sibson & Co., New York management consultants, predicts that by 1984 there will be openings for 2 million top e x ecu~ives as comp a r e d to sqo,ooo now. I ,-Ji th careful though t, programs to c areer ize t h e i ndus t rial job I stru cture fr om t h e production l e v e l Throug h t he management lev el, via a lin k ing of education , s k ill t r aining and p r omot i onal op por1 tunities, cou ld we l l redound in eno rmo u s benefi ts to priv ate business I and society. .., �-13- MO~E REALISTIC TRAINING The high cost of personnel turn .over plagues private enterI prise. Many firm? have attempted to solve this problem by fraction- I ing jobs, employing moonlighters or part time workers, all of which solutionshave impermanence implicit in their very nature. Part of the reason for the excessive turn over rate is the lack of realistic advancement opportunities for the entry worker who has no clear paths to the middle and higher level positions. Careerizing the industry and providing career-oriented incentives including training and education would introduce the necessary motivation both prior to the job and on the job to fill these positions C and recruit the necessary employees. , Training programs not directly tied into job opportunities have not been entirely successful. After trainees have been taught skills, it has often been :found that there were no jobs available £or those skills. In other words, training has not been realistic. A comment on a government-sponsored training program, recently ! issued by the AFL-CIO Executive Councf l illustrates this danger: I "The government's training program provides for training, with payment of allowances up to · t ·wo years. Unfortunately, the present emphasis is often on training programs for jobs which are dead end as well as low wage. Moreover, as long as present training allowances remain as meager as they now are, fe w workers, especially heads of £amilies, can afford to forego the opportunity for immediate employment even a t loVJ wages -- :par t icularly if the~ e is no assurance o:f a job at t he end of the training p k riod . The government ' s p r ograms should be l inked wi t h job placement , when t r a i n I, i n g is compl~ted . • • 11 1 I r fr 1 1 stateme nt on t h e U b an Se pt. 12, 1 967 .. c·· ri s i s , .' I hd , ,. Jas hing · .mi me o rape ton, n.c., �,- I -14- 1 It appears logical that private enterprise is especially well I suited to train and educate workers, since it knows exactly what positions must be !:filled and what is needed to :fill them. In the words o:f the National Association o:f Manu£acturers: "• • • we should realize that the goals of an effective manpower policy should be to develop a more effective American work force; to create jobs which utilize abilities, and to match people and jobs efficiently • • • Industry has not only the expertise to achieve superior results, but it also has the vital interest in full utilization of human resources." ,Jith the training unde:::taken by industry as part of a careerized program, not only would trainees be more precisely matched I to available openings, but would also be immediately productive ·i I and would know that as they im~rove their skills they can step . I into more rev,arding jobs. As we have seen, many segments of a career incentive approach already exist in the creative projects, undertaken by private enterprise. An integrated New Careers Program for industry would pack- age advantageously techniques for recruiting the workers and providing motivation via skill training, ~ducation and clearly structured upgrading opportunities to create new f ources of manpower, reduc~ l labor turnover and combat unemployment. . . I . f rom a New Careers proThere are a number o f additional gains gram in the private sector: I ,Jorkers vtlll be able to move up cim their o wn industri j s as well as acquir i training enabling them to move to ot her indu+ rie s and to the p J lic sector if they so desire. C iNAM Reports, June I 9, 1967. I I I I l I I I �, ,--, I \ __, . -15- The program will provide new taxpayers and consumers, thus increasing aggregate c. C FR ,LP: jet '. ~ 'I f it will reduce wel.fare expenditures. �