Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

Hamilton, Stephen F.

English

Research Papers in Economics

IMPROVING  THE SCHOOL-TO-WORK
TRANSITION
Stephen F. Hamilton
Cornell University
The Youth Apprenticeship  Demonstration  Project places young
people, beginning in their junior year of high school, in work sites
for ten to twenty hours per week  in order to teach them both specific
work  skills and broad personal and social skills.  Work  experience  is
carefully  planned and supervised and coordinated  with school  class-
es. its purpose is to help young people who do not expect to enroll in
four-year  colleges  ("The Forgotten  Half')  identify  career paths that
will orient them toward academic achievement  and socially responsi-
ble behavior.  Now in  its  fourth  year  of operation,  the project  is  di-
rected  by the Cornell  Youth and  Work  Program  with  a base  in
Broome County Cooperative  Extension.
Research  indicates  that young  people  who  do  not graduate  from
four-year  colleges  typically  spend  the  first  several  years  after  high
school floundering  in low-wage,  low-skill jobs with no direct connec-
tion to a future career  (Osterman).  The approach used in the  Youth
Apprenticeship Demonstration Project  was inspired  by European
apprenticeship  systems-especially  Germany's  which  I  studied  for
one year (Hamilton).
The  four-year  program takes the  high school junior  through high
school  and two years  of community  college.  We  began by  choosing
three occupational  areas in which needs were projected  for workers
with more than high school education but less than four years of col-
lege:  health care;  administration  and office  technology;  and man-
ufacturing and engineering  technology.
We are currently  engaged  in transferring  responsibility from  Cor-
nell  to  a  local  organization,  the  School  and  Business  Alliance
(SABA).  We  began  the project  expecting  that extension  would  not
be  appropriate  as  a  permanent  base because  apprenticeship  is  too
resource intensive. Taking  it over permanently  as a large-scale  proj-
ect would  skew extension  priorities.  Instead,  extension  acted  as an
incubator, supporting  research and development  initiated at Cornell.
Project Lessons
Naturally,  the project was designed to provide the best possible
experience  for participants,  but it was also intended to generate new
knowledge.  Research has  allowed us  to monitor and improve  the
94project.  Research  also grounds  our response  to three  key questions
we set out to explore:
Do Young  People  Benefit?
The first and most important  question is whether young  people
benefit from planned  and supervised work-based learning related to
their schooling.  The  record of school  courses taken,  grades re-
ceived,  and  enrollment  and  success  in  post-secondary  education  is
encouraging.  Testimony  from the apprentices  themselves,  their par-
ents,  teachers  and workplace  supervisors  is  overwhelmingly
positive.  Apprentices  take their school work more seriously, plan
more carefully  for the future,  and understand  how  education opens
career paths.
Are Workplaces  Feasible Learning Environments?
The  second question  is whether  it is feasible to use workplaces  as
learning  environments  for youth.  Here,  too,  the  results  are  une-
quivocal.  Although workplace  supervisors and managers  must be
creative  and dedicated to find the right balance between exploration
and  production,  the learning  opportunities  are rich and  rewarding.
Furthermore,  many adults are  quite competent at coaching youth
apprentices  and greatly stimulated by the experience.
Is the Program Too  Demanding for Employers?
A third question is whether providing learning opportunities  for
youth makes unrealistic  demands on employers.  This question is an-
swered in part by the discovery that the program helps create  more
productive  organizations  in  addition  to preparing  well-educated,
highly-skilled  workers-lifelong  learners who  possess  enriched per-
sonal and social skills-precisely what employers  need to prosper  in
the future.  The question of how employers  gain is critical because
youth apprenticeship  cannot move  past the  level of small-scale  dem-
onstrations unless  many employers  are willing  to accommodate
young people.  And that will not happen unless they believe it is in
their own self-interest to do so.
Cooperative  Extension's Role
New legislation  provides the opportunity  to try this approach  on a
larger scale.  It calls for the creation  of school-to-work  opportunity
systems similar to the youth apprenticeship  project, but broader and
more  comprehensive  (Hamilton and Hamilton).  The  act provides
federal  support to partnerships  involving  educators, employers,  em-
ployees  and  community  organizations.  Extension  educators  can be-
come involved in this  initiative in several  ways.  One is by helping
form partnerships.  Extension's reputation in  most communities  is as
95an  "honest  broker" that  can be  counted on to put the  community's
interests above its own. Therefore,  it is well placed to bring together
the partners  specified  in the legislation,  who typically  have little ex-
perience working  together and consequently  do not  fully trust each
other. Another contribution  is  providing expertise in youth develop-
ment,  informal education  (learning by  doing),  and staff development
for  coaches  and teachers.  Few  other organizations  can offer this
combination.
The  Cornell  Youth  Apprenticeship  Demonstration  Project  ex-
emplifies issues programming,  which  requires multi-disciplinary  and
multi-organizational  collaboration.  Whether in the education  of
youth or in the service of other community needs, this mode of oper-
ation is likely to gain prominence  in the future.
REFERENCES
Hamilton,  Stephen  F. Apprenticeship for Adulthood: Preparing  Youth for the Future. New York,  NY:  Free Press,
1990.
Hamilton,  Stephen  F., and  Mary Agnes  Hamilton.  Opening Career Paths for Youth:  What Needs to Be Done? Who
Can Do It? Washington,  DC:  American  Youth Policy Forum,  Jobs for the Future, Cornell  Youth and  Work Pro-
gram,  1994.
Osterman, Paul.  Getting Started: The Youth Labor Market. Cambridge,  MA: MIT  Press,  1980.
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IMPROVING THE SCHOOL-TO-WORK TRANSITION

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Research Papers in Economics