The importance of school-sponsored work experience programs increased rapidly soon after the beginning of World War II. Three influences served to accelerate the number of secondary school students working in productive enterprises during regular school hours. First, manpower shortages made it necessary to utilize all available human resources. Second, the attractiveness of high wages resulted in many secondary school pupils either leaving school completely or working an excessive number of hours after school. Third, by cooperating with business and industry, the schools assisted in the war effort by making it possible for many students to remain in school one-half of each schoolday and to produce essential goods and services during the other half-day period. Following World War II, the educative values of part-time school and work programs became the topic of numerous conferences, research studies, magazine articles, and books. Many educators seemed to favor some form of work experience education as a regular part of the secondary school program. Selection of the Terms Used During the last 50 years the following terms have been used to identify schoolwork programs: Cooperative education, occupational experience, diversified occupations, schoolwork, work-study, workeducation, job-experience, education for work, work experience, and many others. Four of these terms have had sufficient usage to justify special discussion, namely, cooperative education, diversified occupations, work experience, and work experience education. All definitions considered here refer exclusively to secondary school programs. Cooperative Education or Courses The cooperative part time in school and part time at work program is a work experience program planned by school officials, students, and business and industrial leaders. The usual purpose of this program is the study of a specific occupation. In secondary schools, cooperative courses furnish early practical application of vocational skills learned in school or provide for the initial development of skills and abilities necessary for success in a particular occupation. Cooperative Education or "cooperative courses at the secondary school level" refers to a program in which students attend school part time and work part time during school hours. It is planned on-the-job preparation for a remunerative occupation, supervised by school officials, with the program details developed by school officials and employers. The term "cooperative education" usually refers to programs designed for specific vocational and occupational training. Diversified Occupations When cooperative part-time diversified occupations courses were first organized in 1933,1 their chief purpose was to make it possible for secondary school pupils who can be legally and remuneratively employed and who reside in small communities to secure preparation for a career in the business and industrial establishments of the community and ultimate entrance into full-time employment. Nearly 2,500 cities in the United States having a population under 10,000 operate their own school systems. It is almost impossible for the high school in these cities to provide formal trade education programs. The diversified occupations program has been found to be a feasible method of providing vocational education for the trades in most of these communities. Rakestraw 2 described the diversified occupations program as follows: High school students of employable age are enrolled in the program and spend one-half of each day in bona fide employment in their chosen occupation or trade for the purpose of securing organized instruction on the job as student learners. Two periods of the remaining half day are devoted to direct and supervised study of technical and related subjects pertinent to the trade or occupation in which the students are engaged. Since 1946, many States have extended the cooperative part-time diversified occupations program in the 11th and 12th school years. In such programs supervised related subjects study is provided for one school period daily during both years. The balance of the school day is devoted to secondary school courses required to meet requisites for graduation. Work Experience "Work experience" is the term most commonly used to describe work during school hours as a part of the regular school program. Work experience was included 110 times in the titles of the 230 nongovernmental publications in the working bibliography for this bulletin. What this phrase "work experience" means to several writers is shown in these quoted definitions. Work experience is that experience which students gain through participating in the production of needed goods or services in a normal situation in industry, business, in the community at large, or in school, under the direction of the school." 1 Milton J. Gold. Working To Learn: General Education Through Occupational Experiences. Doctoral Dissertation, New York: Teachers College, Columbia University, 1951. P. 116. 2 Clarence E. Rakestraw. Cooperative Part-Time Diversified Occupations Programs. Occupations, 18: 403-406, March 1940. National Society for the Study of Education. Secondary School Program to the Needs of Youth. Press, 1953. P. 183. 42d Yearbook, Part I. Adapting the Chicago: The University of Chicago ... work experience consists of a series of experiences in which needed goods or services are produced.* In general, "work experience" applies to a task which is not concerned (necessarily) with preparation for a specific skilled or semiskilled job which a young person may hope to follow as a lifework; rather it is concerned with developing skills, habits, and attitudes which are of value, no matter what occupation one may follow.5 School work program is an all-inclusive term applied to a number of vocational and/or general education arrangements designed to give youth employment experiences while still in school. Any work-for-pay experience which is definitely planned and properly approved, coordinated with other school subjects and supervised by some assigned person on the school staff as a part of the school's curricular offering is a part of such a program. Credit is usually, but not always, given.* Work Experience Education The term "work experience" when studied etymologically refers to any activity in which an individual engages resulting in the production of useful goods and services. To include the social and intellectual effects of this experience on the individual, a broader term has been proposed "work experience education." Due to the looseness with which the term "work experience" has been used, Tyler who spent the school year 1954-55 studying work experience programs in California schools, suggested the use of the term "work experience education." His definition is as follows: Work experience education is a systematic plan whereby young people, still in school, gain realistic employment experience through part-time work under all of the following conditions: 1. The school adopts a specific plan of operation based on a written outline that shows the respective roles of the school, the student, and the employer. 2. The school assigns qualified personnel to direct the programs and to coordinate the jobs held by students with their school learnings. 3. The schools make certain that work done by students is of a useful worthwhile nature; and that the Federal, State, and local laws and regulations are followed. 4. The school evaluates the work done by the students, awards credit for work successfully accomplished, and enters pertinent facts concerning the student's work on his permanent record. Walter D. Cocking and others. Work Experience. School Executive, 64: 32, December 1944. American Association of School Administrators. Schools and Manpower. Washington: The Association, The National Education Association, 20th Yearbook, 1943. P. 34. • California. School Work Programs and Job Placement Services in Secondary Schools. Los Angeles County Board of Education, May 1954. Mimeo. P. 4. 'California. Report of a Study of Work Experience Programs in California High Schools and Junior Colleges. Sacramento: State Department of Education, Preliminary Edition, September 1955. P. 24. Terms Used in this Bulletin For the purposes of discussion in this report, the phrase "work experience programs" will be considered as synonymous with the phrase "work experience education." It is agreed that "work experience" is a significant portion of the out-of-school education of most young people. However, when a programed arrangement of work experience is provided as a part of the secondary school curriculum, it becomes work experience education. In this report it will be assumed that any work experience program in secondary schools should be operated in conformance with the following criteria: 1. The student performs socially useful tasks at a level of proficiency commensurate with his own highest ability. 2. The work performed is supervised by a qualified school official. 3. Credit based on both quantitative and qualitative judgments of the work done, is granted toward high school graduation; it thus becomes a part of the student's personnel record. 4. The work experience for credit must be gained during school-released time. 5. The student may or may not receive remuneration for the work done. 6. The coordinator or supervisor should meet the students enrolled in the work experience program in a special class in which problems of public relations and job success are considered. 7. Local, State, and Federal labor laws and regulations pertaining to the employment of youth are known and observed. 8. Care is taken that no exploitation of student labor results. 9. The controlling purposes of work experience programs may range from guidance and general education to vocational education for a specific occupation. These are all-inclusive criteria. Work experience education may achieve both vocational and general education goals. Likewise, it embraces both paid and nonpaid work done by students enrolled in the program. The most significant aspects of an educative work experience program include arranging for the work to be done on schoolreleased time, providing supervision by the school, granting credit, and providing supplementary instruction related to problems of personality development, community relations, and job success. Significant Publications on Work Experience Education The significance of an educational innovation or practice can be measured roughly by the number of contemporary books, bulletins, pamphlets, articles in periodicals, and other publications dealing with it. Of the 276 items in the working bibliography for this study, 145 have been produced since 1950. Several doctoral dissertations, one foundation grant, and several statewide surveys made by the State department of education personnel indicate the prevailing interest in the study of work experience education. Three groups of references are provided in the appendix of the bulletin. A number of significant pamphlets, books, and articles in periodicals are also listed. Publications from the Field of Education 9 Since 1941, more than 200 articles in periodicals, chapters in yearbooks and special bulletins, research reports, and books have been added to the literature concerned with work experience education. The publications which best identify the developmental phases of work experience education in secondary schools are: Work Experience Education, by Seyfert and Rehmus, 1941; Work Experience-A Discussion of Values, Principles and Programs, by Walter D. Cocking and others, 1945; Work Experience in Secondary Education,10 by Harold J. Dillon, 1946; Training High School Youth for Employment," by Clarence E. Rakestraw, 1947; the textbook, Work Experience in High Schools,12 by Ivins and Runge, 1951; and the Report of a Study of Work Experience Programs in California High Schools and Junior Colleges,13 by Henry T. Tyler, 1955. Other selected publications from the field of education are included in part I of the appendix. Publications from Educational Agencies of Cities, Counties, States, and the Federal Government A study of official bulletins and annual reports from educational agencies reveals permissive provisions and current practices in the field of work experience education. Omitting almost all State and Federal bulletins which relate specifically to the federally subsidized cooperative part-time classes and programs in trade and industrial occupations and in distributive education, part II of the appendix in 8 Warren C. Seyfert and Paul A. Rehmus. Work Experience Education. Harvard University Workshop Series No. 2, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1941. 65 p. Walter D. Cocking and others. Work Experience-A Discussion of Values, Principles, and Programs. New York: Hinds, Hayden and Eldridge, Inc., 1945. 43 p. 10 Harold J. Dillon. Work Experience in Secondary Education. Child Labor Committee, 1946. 96 p. New York: National 1 Clarence E. Rakestraw. Training High School Youth for Employment. Chicago: The American Technical Society, 1947. 218 p. 12 Wilson H. Ivins and William B. Runge. Work Experience in High School. New York: The Ronald Press Co., 1951. 13 California. Report of a Schools and Junior Colleges. of Education, September 1955. 507 p. Study of Work Experience Programs in California High Preliminary Edition. Sacramento: The State Department 160 p. |