job search, how to frame an effective resume, how to write cover and follow-up letters, and how to fill out
applications. The instruction stresses successful interviewing techniques and appropriate personal appearance,
as well as how to maintain a job after it is obtained. ie

Unemployment is a harsh reality accompanied by a combination of psychological, domestic, and financial
problems which themselves often impede or prevent personal and financial recovery. So, about 15 hours are
spent assisting our students to face and to cope with being unemployed, teaching them to respond positively and
creatively to their situation, to manage stress, to husband their money and time, and to use the helping
resources and agencies of the community in addition to their own inherent strengths. We try to nurture their
ability to face and to solve the problems with which they are faced. Perhaps above all, we attempt to restore or
to enhance their self-esteem—always one of the first casualties of losing one’s job. One of our most perceptive
program directors likes to pose a question: "What was your name when you worked at the mill?" When the
student answers, he continues: "And what is your name now?" When the name is repeated, he says: "Isn’t it
amazing! The only thing those folks can take from you is your job. The rest you donate."

We personalize this training through individual guidance and academic planning, personal counseling, referring
students to other programs and resources, and reinforcing activities which took place within the group. We
prepare and file an Employment Development Plan for each student, which establishes his career and
educational objectives and outlines the means by which he will attempt to attain them.

Our basic model allows flexibility for providing some groups with additional generic entry-level training.

Having completed "basic training," some students are ready to look for work. We assist them through our
own contacts, through the college placement offices, and through the Local Job Service. The plan for other
students calls for additional training, either upgrading their basic educational level or learning new vocational
skills. Instruction in reading, writing, mathematics, and science enables some people to obtain a GED and
others to achieve whatever level of basic educational competency they need to undertake advanced technical
training successfully or to qualify for new employment. ts

Vocational and technical training can take many forms, depending on the needs and readiness of the student.
lt may mean simply credentialing, through our system, the specific skills the student has already mastered in
special technologies, supervision, or human relations. More often, it involves degree or diploma courses in the
regular technical college curriculum, on-the-job training, classes offered by private contractors or proprietary
schools, or courses sponsored by the state departments of Vocational Education. Many short-term (and some
relatively long-term) special courses are contracted by the State Board and offered by the technical colleges,
which are close to local businesses and industry and cognizant of their specific needs for skills training.
Evaluation and New Directions for 1985-1986

We are encouraged that 78% of our participants leaving the program enter new employment. Nevertheless,
we have found that about half of the students who enroll in formal training do not complete it successfully,
usually because they leave training to take a job. Indeed, experience with dislocated workers convinces us that
most unemployed persons—especially older heads-of-households—want jobs rather than retraining, even at
lowered wages. In addition, many cannot profit much from vocational retraining (of any sophistication) because
they lack fundamental educational skills.

The most effective retraining programs are of short duration, and the skills they offer are both limited and
very specific. In the coming year we will emphasize basic employability skills training and options for short-
term vocational training, supporting long-term courses only for those who are most highly motivated and who
stand to benefit substantially from extensive retraining.

By consolidating some individual Dislocated Workers Centers into regionally-based teams and by reserving
funds for special training programs instead of distributing them in advance to the Centers, we can earmark our
resources and trained personnel for areas where the need is most critical at any given time. Our emphasis will
be on getting people to work as quickly as possible, but at the same time encouraging them to set long-range
educational and vocational goals which they can achieve as part-time students. = _—
| SUGLAS COLLEGE:

    
   
   

James L. Lancaster
Midlands Technical College | ARCHIVES

For further information, contact Dr. Raymond P. Carson, State Board for Tectifical and Comprehensive

| Education, 111 Executive Center Drive, Enoree Building, Columbia, South Carolina 29210.

 

Suanne D. Roueche, Editor
September 13, 1985, Vol. VII, No. 20
INNOVATION ABSTRACTS is a publication of the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development, EDB 348, The University of Texas at Austin,

Austin, Texas 78712, (512) 471-7545. Subscriptions are available to nonconsortium members for $35 per year. Funding in part by the W/ K. Kellogg
Foundation and Sid W. Richardson Foundation. Issued weekly when classes are in session during fall and spring terms and monthly during the summer.

(©) The University of Texas at Austin, 1985
Further duplication is permitted only by MEMBER institutions for their own personnel. ISSN 0199-106X