Work experience for youth with disabilities is one of the most critical factors that sets the stage for their postsecondary employment success. Research and practice show that youth benefit from frequent and continuous exposure to real work environments throughout the secondary school years and beyond. These experiences, however, occur only when…

Assesses the effectiveness of youth work experience programs currently being carried out in the United States. Emphasizes the importance of Dewey's principles of continuity and interaction in assuring that such programs provide youth with meaningful and lasting skills and knowledge. (GC)

Reviews data on massive youth unemployment in the United States and looks at youth training in Germany and Japan. Proposes a national program that would create large numbers of youth trainee positions in the public and private sectors, and would include vocational training and counseling at the high school level. (ML)

The Core Skills Project has developed in the "core skills" an instrument that can be used in the analysis of occupational competence. Any development of accreditation of work-based learning entails assessment of learning in the workplace. The success of such assessment depends on identifying the outcomes of experience in terms of…

This article considers the proposed federal Youth Education and Employment Initiative which targets federal funds to those high schools with the lowest achievement and highest poverty levels, to help build work experience programs and to upgrade student skills. New Jersey Education Association recommendations on secondary curriculum improvement…

Assessment of student achievement in the workplace identifies workplace skills students may not demonstrate in course work. It also induces a continuous sensitivity to industry needs. On-job training tends to have sufficient formality to encourage organized assessment and off-job learning can involve assessment to the point of excess. However,…

Vocational education's primary goal--to prepare people for work--underscores the vital role the discipline can play in upgrading the employability of disadvantaged youth. Those who have received vocational training are more likely to stay in school and receive higher salaries than other workers with comparable education at every level from high…

Curricular domains relevant to work experience programs are motivation, sequencing, and goals. A case study of a project of institutional collaboration on peer counseling for work experience students (forming a consortium between a city school board of education and a community college) was made through data generated from the Youthwork National…

This issue features articles on basic skills enrichment for summer job programs and on the recent revisions to the Job Training Partnership Act's (JTPA's) performance standards system. "Basic Skills and Summer Enrichment: An Interview with Gordon Berlin" focuses on the summer enrichment movement in general and the Summer Training and…

The causes of youth unemployment--especially among poor and minority youths--are enmeshed in a web of social, educational, and economic forces acting on the lives of families. Some of these forces are out of the sphere of federal influence, but labor market industries and the education system also have important effects on the experience of youth…

While strongly supporting the passage of the Youth Act of 1980 (S-2385), the American Vocational Association (AVA) contends that improvements are needed in the bill in order to effect optimal linkages between employment and education agencies toward solving the youth unemployment problem. Specific changes would (1) further the potential of…

This publication traces developments in the use of profiles produced over the last two years and attempts to face some difficult and controversial issues raised repeatedly in any consideration of profiling. The introduction addresses assessment issues. Section 2 discusses the technical issues surrounding profiles, or records of achievement, and…

These six papers examine the issues and review some of the current practices in the developing field of profile recording of young people's attainments. An introductory paper, "A Burst of Interest," looks at some reasons why profiling has developed and examines some major issues involved. "Profiles in Training" discusses…

Provided in this report are a number of empirical and conceptual papers dealing with barriers to youth employment. The first paper, "Barriers to Youth Employment: A Review," contains a summary of more than 100 reports on causes of youth employability problems and poses several alternative strategies for formulation of youth labor market policy.…

Several decades of studies evaluating youth employment programs funded through the nation's second-chance system have demonstrated the shortcomings of programs that concentrate on work experience alone and try to reverse years of inadequate education, discrimination, and alienation in a few weeks or months. The School-to-Work Opportunities Act…