This practicum addressed the attitudes and behaviors of 10 adolescents with severe behavioral and emotional problems participating in a cooperative job training program. The intervention used an adventure approach to help the students replace aggression and misconduct with job-related social skills. A needs assessment was conducted to identify…

This self-instructional module, the fourteenth in a series of 16 on techniques for coordinating work experience programs, deals with vocational assessment. Addressed in the module are the purposes of vocational assessment, the types of information that are gathered in the vocational assessment process, and available vocational assessment…

The Greater Avenues for Independence Linkages Internship Project (GAIN-LIP), administered by the Occupational Training Institute of the Foothill-De Anza Community College District (FDCCD) in Cupertino, California, is designed to assist recipients of Aide to Families with Dependent Children develop job skills that allow them to become…

The 1994-95 school year was the first year of the MECA (Manufacturing, Engineering, Construction, Automotive) partnership implementation in the Saginaw (Michigan) Public Schools. MECA's purpose was to nurture the potential of youth while placing them in workplace environments that had not been a traditional part of applied learning in secondary…

Outcomes of a longitudinal study of the Earn and Learn program are summarized. Earn and Learn was a work-experience program initiated in 1972 as a school-based, goal-oriented program for at-risk middle school students designed to increase their self-image and school performance. Two evaluation studies were carried out. One study focused on the…

This self-instructional module, the last in a series of 16 on techniques for coordinating work experience programs, deals with affirmative action. Addressed in the module are the following topics: the nature of affirmative action legislation and regulations, the role of the teacher-coordinator as a resource person for affirmative action…

An in-depth assessment of cooperative (co-op) education training programs is presented. For the purposes of this research, cooperative education is defined as work and school experiences designed to complement each other. Five questions are addressed: (1) Are the training programs teaching the right things? (2) Is the training being done…

Using National Employer Survey data collected during 1997 and 1998, this paper examines the one-year impact on employers of participating in school-to-work partnerships under the 1994 School-to-Work Opportunities Act. In both years the surveys asked about the kinds and numbers of school-to-work activities in which employers engaged, their…

The Women in Technology (WIT) program at Texas' El Paso Community College (EPCC) was established to recruit women into nontraditional occupations, offering technical education, services to help retain women, and community outreach efforts to help change attitudes. This report describes outcomes for the 1994-95 fiscal year, focusing on five WIT…

Despite the tremendous growth of the ethnic community in Santa Clara County, California, very few minorities are employed in city and county government. The Minorities In Government Internship Project (MIGIP) was established to place minority vocational students with a minimum of 12 quarter units in their major in administrative, technical and…

This self-instructional module, one of 16 on techniques for coordinating work experience programs, provides preservice and inservice educational materials for teacher-coordinators supervising on-the-job training. The four goals for this module are (1) to understand the background and concepts of cooperative vocational education, (2) to understand…

In 2000, a quantitative telephone survey of 2,098 businesses in Australia determined employer awareness of and participation in structured workplace learning (SWL) programs. It explored "drivers" of participation and employers' decision-making process. Comparisons with a 1998 survey identified changes in employer awareness, attitudes,…

Youth services programs funded by the federal Workforce Investment Act of 1998 provide educational services, mentoring, work experience, job training, and support services to help youth meet educational or employment goals. This first-year evaluation of West Virginia's RESA I Workforce Investment Youth Services Program interviewed 7 staff members…

A study assessed the characteristics and practices of employers participating in Florida school-to-work (STW) initiatives, the factors influencing their participation, and the quality and value of their partnerships with schools. Data were gathered through a statewide mail survey of a random sample of employers drawn from more than 15,000 Florida…

This manual has been developed to assist prime sponsors, private industry councils, community-based organizations and other youth serving agencies in planning, designing, and implementing vocational exploration activities. The information, forms, and curriculum samples in the manual are a collection of the efforts of 14 program operators involved…