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February 22, 2007
Reinventing Job Corps
Here is another example of a government program that is coming to grip with the I-Cubed Economy - Job Corps Plans Makeover for a Changed Economy - New York Times:
Over the last four decades, even as failed experiments and partisan disputes took the luster off the war on poverty, the Job Corps, the government’s main effort to give poorly educated youths a second chance at a diploma and a trade, was widely seen as one of the few success stories.
But now, as the economy has turned against those with low skills and researchers have questioned the long-term impact of the Job Corps on the lives of its graduates, this remnant of the Great Society is facing an urgent need to reinvent itself.
According to the story, the new head of the Job Corps, Dr. Esther R. Johnson, wants to move the program toward higher value-added careers through "improving their reading, math and vocational skills. She also wants trade courses to connect more closely with college programs and emerging industries, and she thinks the corps must double the number of graduates, now just 10 percent, who go on to higher education."
The result will be individuals who qualified for those higher level jobs:
With better training, high school diplomas or, better, degrees from community colleges, many graduates of such programs, it is hoped, will become chefs instead of hamburger flippers; plumbers, electricians or carpenters instead of pickup laborers; nurses instead of health aides.
That is clearly the right direction. As more and more of the low skill jobs are either automated or shifted offshore, the skill level of the bottom portion needs to be significantly raised. The rising tide may lift all boats; but you have the skills to float - otherwise you drowned.
Revamping Job Corps is a good start at making sure those individuals at the bottom are ready when the tide comes in.
Posted by Ken Jarboe at February 22, 2007 8:55 AM
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