United States General Accounting Office __________________________________________________________________ GAO Report to Congressional Requestors __________________________________________________________________ May 1990 TRAINING STRATEGIES Preparing Noncollege Youth for Employment in the U.S. and Foreign Countries Some of the information in this report--e.g., pictures, charts, and tables--was not in ASCII text format and not included. If you wish to obtain a complete report, call GAO report distribution at 202/275-6241 (7:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. EST) or write to GAO, P.O. Box 6015, Gaithersburg, MD 20877. __________________________________________________________________ GAO/HRD-90-88 This U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) report is 1 of 7 available over the Internet as part of a test to determine whether there is sufficient interest within this community to warrant making all GAO reports available over the Internet. The file REPORTS at NIH lists the 7 reports. 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Scheuer Chairman, Subcommittee on Education and Health Joint Economic Committee Congress of the United States The Honorable Augustus F. Hawkins Chairman, Committee on Education and Labor House of Representatives This report, prepared at your request, contains information on (1) the weaknesses in the U.S. education and training system for preparing noncollege youth for employment and (2) foreign strategies that appear relevant to the U.S. shortcomings. It also includes policy actions that might be considered by the federal government and by state and local governments. As requested, we did not obtain written comments from the Departments of Education or Labor. We did, however, discuss matters described in this report with officials in these agencies, and their comments have been incorporated where appropriate. We are sending copies of this report to other congressional committees and subcommittees, the Secretaries of Labor and Education, and other interested parties. This report was prepared under the direction of Franklin Frazier, Director, Education and Employment Issues, who may be reached on (202) 275-1793 if you or your staffs have any questions. Other major contributors to this report are listed in appendix III. Charles A. Bowsher Comptroller General of the United States 1 B-238820 __________________________________________________________________ EXECUTIVE SUMMARY __________________________________________________________________ PURPOSE The United States is renowned worldwide for its college and university system, which provides extensive opportunity for higher education. Yet only about half of U.S. youth go to college. For the other half, U.S. education and training often provide inadequate preparation for employment. The perception that foreign competitors excel in world trade partly because their workers are better educated and trained prompted the Joint Economic Committee and the House Education and Labor Committee to ask GAO to compare how the United States and competitor countries prepare noncollege youth for employee. Specifically, GAO was asked to -- review U.S. education and training strategies and identify likely weaknesses and -- examine selected countries'strategies for preparing noncollege youth for employment. ___________________________________________________________________ BACKGROUND Experts are concerned that U.S. international competitiveness is being eroded because (1) many jobs are requiring greater skills and (2) youth are unprepared to meet the new labor market demands. Required skill levels are increasing in both the occupations with the fastest rate of growth and those projected to add most new jobs in the next decade. Poor literacy skills and employer reports that many youth applicants are unqualified for entry- level positions point up inadequacies in the preparation of youth for employment. 2 B-238820 For this study GAO examined four countries--England, the Federal Republic of Germany, Japan, and Sweden-- that try to develop a well-qualified noncollege youth work force. GAO reviewed literature on how the United States and these countries prepare noncollege youth for employment, consulted with experts who assessed the U.S. and foreign strategies, and visited the foreign countries to meet with knowledgeable persons and view the education and training systems firsthand. GAO cautions that necessarily succinct contrasts between U.S. weaknesses and foreign strengths in education and training often conceal U.S. strengths and foreign weaknesses in this area. __________________________________________________________________ RESULTS IN BRIEF Insufficient attention is devoted to preparing U.S. noncollege youth for employment. About 9 million of the nation's 33 million youth aged 16 to 24 will not have needed skills to meet employer requirements for entry-level positions--5.5 million dropouts and 3.8 million high school graduates who lack high school competency. The four competitor nations have national policies that emphasize preparing noncollege youth for employment. Specific approaches vary by country, are rooted in different traditions, and may be accompanied by problems of their own. Still, the following approaches used by some or all of the countries may be relevant for the United States: -- Foreign countries expect all students to do well in school, particularly in the early school years. Some U.S. schools, confronted with difficult social ills, often accept that many will lag behind. 3 B-238820 -- Foreign schools and the employment community guide students' transition from school to work to a greater degree than in the United States. Noncollege students leaving school receive more directed assistance in finding jobs than their U.S. counterparts. -- Competitor nations establish competency-based national training standards that they use to certify skill competency. The common U.S. practice is to certify only program completion. -- Competitors invest extensively in jobless out-of-school youth to assure them a job or further education and training. U.S. employment and training programs reach only a modest proportion of youth in need. GAO's ANALYSIS U.S. Shortchanges Noncollege Youth The foreign countries tend to invest proportionately more than does the United States in noncollege education and training. The United States invests heavily in college education but does not do equally well by its young people who seek immediate employment. From the customary end of compulsory education at age 16 through age 24, less than half as much is invested in education and training for each noncollege youth as for each college youth (see pp. 12 and 23-24). Expectations That All Students Will Do Well in School Young adults in the foreign countries have higher literacy levels than those in the United States. In the United States, academic difficulties frequently 4 B-238820 are evident in the early years, with many children unprepared for school entry and many in school not keeping pace with expected levels of progress. Certain practices of the other countries, such as providing comparable educational resources to all schools, emphasize providing equal educational opportunity to all youth regardless of differences in socioeconomic status and academic talent. For example: -- Japan provides uniform teacher salaries and per capita school funding, so that poorer areas have educational resources that are comparable to more affluent ones. -- Sweden gives extra resources to needy schools, such as those in remote rural areas or with large immigrant populations. Assistance in Transition From School to Work The foreign countries help students learn about job requirements and assist them in finding employment to a greater extent than does the United States. One major element is the involvement of employers. For example: -- Joint school-employer programs provide work experience for secondary school students. -- Japanese employers recruit high school seniors th