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ERIC ED341773: Unemployment, Education, and Training: Case Studies from North America and Europe. PDF

355 Pages·1991·4.1 MB·English
by  ERIC
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DOCUMENT RESUME ED 341 773 CE 060 139 AUTHOR Forrester, Keith, Ed.; Ward, Kevin, Ed. Unemployment, Education, and Training: Case Studies TITLE from North America and Europe. REPORT NO ISBN-0-9625945-6-3 PUB DATE 91 NOTE 355p. AVAILABLE FROM Caddo Gap Press, 915 L Street, Suite C-414, Sacramento, CA 95814 ($19.95). Reports - Research/Technical (143) PUB TYPE MF01 Plus Postage. PC Not Available from EDRS. EDRS PRICE Adult Education; Case Studies; Demonstration DESCRIPTORS Programs; Developed Nations; *Dislocated Workers; Educational Needs; Foreign Countries; *Job Training; *Labor Market; Labor Needs; Open Universities; Postsecondary Education; *Program Effectiveness; Program Implmflentation; Public Policy; *Retraining; *Unemployment; Unions; Youth Employment Belgium; *Europe (West); France; Netherlands; Sweden; IDENTIFIERS United Kingdom; West Germany ABSTRACT Thi3 book contains 12 chapters, each of which is a case study or a commentary on the unemployment of the 1980s and early 1990s and on the programs devised to retrain workers. Titles and authors are as follows: "Understanding Unemployment: A Critical Overview of Labour Market Trends, Employment, and Unemployment: (John Hughes); "A Critical Overview: Education and Training Responses to Changes in the Labour Market and Unemployment" (Kevin Ward, Keith Forrester); "Unemployment and Education: Adjustment Strategies for Displaced Workers in the United States" (Jeanne Prial Gordus, Karen Yamakawa); "Dislocated Workers in Transition: Overcoming Resistance to Retraining and Continuing Education" (Lee Shore, Jerry Atkin); "Communication and Information System for the Unemployed: A Systems Approach to a Systems Problem" (Otto Feinstein); "The REPLAN Programme in England and Wales: A National Programme To Improve Educational Opportunities for Unemployed Adults" (Paul Fordham); "Open College Networks and Unwaged People" (David BrowAing); "Adult Education and Trade Union Centres against Unemployment" (Keith Forrester, Kevin Ward); "Community Business Development in Scotland: Its Relevance to Adult Education" (George Burt); "Recurrent Education and the Labour Market: Changing Conceptions within Swedish Post-Compulsory Education" (Kenneth Abrahamsson); "Youth Unemployment in West Europe: Alternating Training Systems as Responses to Youth Unemployment in Five Western European Countries" (Krista Michiels); and "Conclusion: Education and Training Policies--Future Challenges for Educational Institutions, Employers, and Trade Union Organisations" (Keith Forrester, Kevin Ward). (KC) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be mr..de * * from the original document. * * *********************************************************************** UNEMPLOYMENT, EDUCATION, Case Studies from North America AND TRAINING: and Europe U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS MATEBIAL Office of Educational Research and lmprovemeni IN OTHER THAN PAPER COPY HAS BEEN ED CATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION GRANTED BY CENTER (ERIC) This document has been reproduced as received from the person Or organization originating it Pal 0 Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality 101 Points of view or opinions stated in this docu NAL RESOURCES EDUC THE TO mant do not neceSeenly represent Official INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)." OE RI position Or policy be Edited by Keith Forrester and Kevin Ward _.......s/.../../..drArArmarmmiiiimi milm -...0%.40MMIKOFAirMIMIMM MMILWIIM\ .-dUrAiirArMagArAWIRIIMIKIWOOk /AV MASM1111111111111111MLW Aelitt Ar BEST COPY AVAILABLE 2 UNEMPLOYMENT, EDUCATION AND TRAINING: Case Studies from North America and Europe Edited by Keith Forrester and Kevin Ward Copyright 1991 by Keith Forrester and Kevin Ward ISBN 0-9625945-6-3 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 90-085084 Published by Caddo Gap Press, Inc. 915 L Street, Suite C-414 Sacramento, California 95814 $19.95 U.S. CON7ENTS =IR Contents Introduction 1 Keith Forrester and Kevin Ward 13 Chapter 1 Understanding Unemployment: A Critical Overview of Labour Market Trends, Employment, and Unemployment John Hughes 33 Chapter 2 A Critical Overview: Education and Training Responses and Unemployment to Changes in the Labour Market Kevin Ward and Keith Forrester 63 Chapter 3 Unemployment and Education: Adjustment Strategies for Displaced Workers in the United States Jeanne Arial Gordus and Karen Yamakawa 99 Chapter 4 Dislocated Workers in Transition: Overcoming Eesistance to Retraining and Continuing Education Lee Shore and Jerry Atkin iii 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Chapter 5 125 Communication and Information System for the Unemployed: A Systems Approach to a Systems Problem Otto Feinstein Chapter 6 151 The REPLAN Programme in England and Wales: A National Programme to Improve Educational Opportunities for Unemployed Adults Paul Fordham Chapter 7 179 Open College Networks and Unwaged People David Browning Chapter 8 233 Adult Education and Trade Union Centres Against Unemployment Keith Forrester and Kevin Ward Chapter 9 257 Community Business Development in Scotland: Its Relevance to Adult Education Gene Burt Chapter 10 271 Recurrent Education and the Labour Market: Changing Conceptions within Swedish Post-Compulsory Education Kenneth A brahamsson Chapter 11 295 Youth Unemployment in West Europe: Alternating Training Systems as Responses to Youth Unemployment in Five Western European Countries Krista Mkhiels Chapter 12 331 Conclusion: Education and Training Policies Future Challenges for Educational Institutions, Employers, and Trade Union Organisations Keith Forrester and Kevin Ward Index 347 Notes on Contributors 351 iv f" ) ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Acknowledgements The time and coordination required to assemble and prepare a volume with international contributions was far greater than we envisaged originally. Involving nine contributors from five countries enhanced the educational value and objectives of the book; organising the contributions for publication, on the other hand, was a different matter completely! Fortunately, a number of people helped to ensure that our frustrations were kept to a minimum. Without the support of Diane Jacks, Jaswant Bhavra, Rosalyn Hawkins, and Marilyn Moreland, in the Department of External Studies at Leeds University, this publication would not have been possible. We are extremely grateful to them. We were fortunate, too, in working with contributors who displayed considerable patience and good will. The exchange of materials and information within and across countries; visits to particular programmes and institutions; the organisation of an international conference; and finally the publication of this book have provided the basis for joint projects and continued learning. v f; ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Finally, on a personal note, we must thank our respective partners, Sue and Marianne, without whose support, not only this publication, but more importantly, our continued involvement in the demanding areas of adult education, would not be possible. Keith Forrester and Kevin Ward vi I FORRESTER and WARD Introduction By Keith Forrester and Kevin Ward Unemployment is falling, people are getting back to work: but I don't believe it. Things are getting better, I am told: I don't believe it....I have been struggling to find a job since being the are made redundant...the unemployed untouchables of (society). It's not for want of it's not disappointment, trying...Failure is heartbreak....there is no progression, no future, just stagnation and slow decay. The gulf bet- jobless is a vast one; ween the employed and the of understand- not only financially but in terms ing _much of training is but free Lbour for employers masquerading as trainers. The un- employed aren't getting jobs, only schemes...the unemp!oyed are...undesirables. I wonder what I have done that I and my family should be denied the simple dignity of living a normal life. These are the words of a 40-year-old unemployed man writing in a major British newspaper in Spring 1989. At the same 1 IN7RODUC770N time, a significant book was published in Britain which indicated that it was highly likely that Jim Jarrett's desperate search for work would continue, unsuccessfully, into the 1990s.2 This book was written by a former adviser in the United Kingdom (UK) government's Department of Employment. It included reports on long-term unemployment from commissioned economic forecasts based on monetarist and Keynesian perspectives. On the basis of these (which all predicted major continuing unemployment problems into the 1990s) and other surveys, the author concludes that unemployment in the UK will rise from its current figure (2,018 million in early 1989,2 to 4 million by 1991); and this is an underestimate since it does not include, for example, those over 65 wishing to work. When these British figures are placed in the context of the employment and unemployment details of other OECD countries (a total of around 30 million for the latter half of the 1980s) which are provided by John Hughes in Chapter 1 of this book, then we have some idea about the scale of the problem of un- employment in the 1980s and 1990s in western industrialised countries. At the beginning of the 1980s, when there was a proliferation of moral panic and other responses to unemployment (see Chapter 2 for a descriptive analysis of these differing responses), none but a tiny minority were truly blase about unemployment. Since then, however, there seems to have been a gradual change in attitudes in many countriesat least on the part of those in power and authoritytowards the unemployed. In some countries (Sweden and the United States, for example) lower levels of unemployment may have led to more of a focus on education and retraining for the current workforcealbeit a two-tier system of low-level training for unskilled workers (a semi-literate under- class?), limited training for skilled workers, and more generous provision for managerial staff. In other countries (Britain being the prime example), recent falls in unemployment official totals have led to a misplaced complacency and a diminution of urgent responses; perhaps because high levels of unemployment have not 2 9 FORRESTER and WARD proved so politically dangerous as was once assumed. Whatever the reasons, unemployment is no longer regarded as the critical issue it was in the early- to mid-1980s. In this context, the purpose of this book is to contribute, marginally at least, to that debate which stresses that unemploy- ment should be regarded as a major social, political, and econom- ic problem for the foreseeable future. In addition, even in those countries where the official unemployment rates are relatively low, there is an urgent need, in a context of rapid technological development and major changes in the labour market, to provide accessible and relevant educational opportunities for creative work and creative leisure. The origins of this book lie in adult education work with unwaged people which has been developed since 1981 by the editors and other colleagues from the Department of External Studies (previously called the Department of Adult and Continu- ing Education) at the University of Leeds in the North of Eng- land. The Department already had a well established programme of workers' education, but in common with the vast majority of educational institutions it had no specific response to dramatic rises in unemployment. Thus, an adult education action-research programme with unwaged adults in the community and with redundant workers was established. This work is well-docu- mented elsewhere.' As adult educators, it meant that we had a lot to learn both from unwaged adults about their concerns and priorities, and also from other projects and programmes both in the UK, other European countries, and North America. Some of these contacts were eventually brought together at an internation- al conference held at Ruskin College, Oxfordwell-known for its tradition of working class adult education in Britainin 1988. The papers for the conference (Adult Education and Responses to Unemployment: Some North American and European Experien- ces) provided the basis for this book. The book describes and analyses significant education and training responses to unemploy- ment, underemployment, and general labour market restructuring from a variety of institutional and organisational settings in 3 1 II

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