Getting down to business.

• Author: Baughman, Nena
• Position: Indiana University works with Indiana Bell, The Associated Group, INB National Bank, PSI Energy and IU Hospitals to improve the quality of education and the work force - Includes directory of business seminars and workshops

Indiana University collaborates with leading service companies to design a major new educational product.

The poor state of American education, and consequently the American work force, is a popular target of criticism these days. Indiana, graduating barely three-fourths of its high-school seniors, doesn't escape the line of fire.

But where does educational reform begin? Certainly changes must be integrated into primary and secondary education. But what can Indiana do in the meantime--before those students enter the work force--to remain competitive in a rapidly changing economic environment, characterized by educational and technological one-upmanship?

"As people in business we have to be concerned" about education problems in the work force, says Phil Junker, district human resources manager for Indiana Bell. It's not just a matter of exorbitant welfare costs and the resulting taxes. The grim reality that 25 percent of the work force is nonproductive is frightening. "Either we step up to it and find a way to do it and pay for it now, or we're going to pay later."

Indiana University is collaborating with some of Indiana's leading service companies, hoping to design a program for the educational improvement of today's work force. Last April, IU President Thomas Ehrlich announced aspirations for a revolutionary, specialized business-training curriculum. He called it "nothing less than a major new educational product--one that cannot be assembled using off-the-shelf components drawn from existing programs."

Indiana Bell, The Associated Group, INB National Bank, PSI Energy and IU Hospitals are the participants. Though a formal, structured program has not yet been developed, plans are under way. There are many hopes and aspirations.

The impetus for a specialized business-training curriculum arose out of the participants' mutual concern for the future of Indiana's economy. Historically, the state's economy has been manufacturing-based, and it still is, predominantly. The service sector has been somewhat overlooked by educators.

Now, the service economy is growing rapidly, while the manufacturing sector's growth has leveled off. The concern is that Indiana's work force, particularly the service industry, is not educated properly to compete in a changing environment.

"The problems facing Indiana are acute, and the interests of business and education are closely congruent. The time is now, it seems to me, for us to declare formally that we will work together," Ehrlich says.

While Indiana becomes increasingly service-oriented, "the educational system is still attuned to turning out good factory workers," says Dan Kendall, vice president and human resources officer for the Associated Group. Students are taught to be in their seats by the bell, to maintain a good attendance record and not to ask too many questions.

"The educational machine is a large one and very difficult to guide, let alone turn around," says Kendall. "But we need to learn to survive, adapt and learn new skills. We can't, as yet, teach those things."

The economic environment of the future, even of today, demand flexibility. "We're doing things today we never would have considered four to five years ago," says Danny Littell, vice president of administration for PSI Energy. Braille billing statements are sent to PSI's vision-impaired customers. It has telephones with amplifiers on the receivers for its hearing-impaired customers. It supports a home watch program for elderly consumers. Meter readers report any unusual activity, or a lack of activity.

"Even in a heavily regulated industry like ours, we have to be competitive and as customer-service-oriented as anyone could hope to be. That's what we're all about now. Our goal is to get everyone else on that bandwagon," says Littell.

The goal of all the collaborators is to devise training packages that will teach workers necessary skills and technical competencies, while at the same time teaching them to be adaptive to new strategies. It is hoped that these programs will enable the involved companies to make necessary transformations to remain competitive in the future.

Some classes would be very practical; for example, teaching employees to read annual reports and decipher financial statements, rather than teaching them strict accounting methods. Other classes might be more philosophical in nature. One might envision...