Training and Placement
The Nation has been plagued recently by the paradox of a constantlyenlarging number of unemployed and an increasing shortage of skilledworkers. Even in those areas with the highest unemployment, there hasbeen a shortage of trained personnel to fill jobs requiring specializedskills. 1 To a large extent technological change and the obsolescence ofsome industries have swelled our unemployment rolls. Old skills areconstantly becoming obsolete. New industries and new techniques demand new skills. The Department of Labor's projection of labor needsfor the next decade indicates that the increasing demand for skilledlabor will accelerate2014an estimated 5 million more craftsmen must betrained by igyo, 2 while the demand for unskilled labor will continue toshrink. 8 Minority group workers traditionally have been limited to unskilled or low skilled jobs. Our increasing reliance on skill presentsthe possibility that they will receive less and less of the Nation's economic bounties unless they can obtain the necessary training and thenget jobs for which they are qualified.
Through the grant of substantial funds2014almost $300 million in fiscal1961 * 2014the Federal Government participates in a number of programsto train and place individuals seeking employment. These could havean important impact on employment opportunities for minority groupmembers. Both President Truman's Committee on Government Contract Compliance 8 and President Eisenhower's Committee on Government Contracts 8 recommended a requirement that such training,recruitment, and referral programs be administered on a nondiscriminatory basis. Apparently, President Kennedy's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity is attempting to assure the nondiscriminatoryadministration of federally assisted training. 7
To assess the actual and potential impact of these programs on equal
employment opportunity, four of them are analyzed in this chapter.Three are concerned with training. They are: vocational education,administered by the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare(Hew); apprenticeship training, administered by the Department ofLabor; and vocational rehabilitation, administered by HEW. Thefourth is designed to facilitate recruitment and placement by subsidizinga system of State public employment offices, and is also administeredby the Department of Labor.
TRAINING
Vocational education
According to HEW, "The Federal-State program of cooperation for thedevelopment of vocational education is based upon two fundamentalideas: (i ) That vocational education is in the national interest andindeed is essential to the national welfare; and (2) that Federal fundsare necessary to stimulate and assist the States in making adequate provisions for such training." 8 The primary purpose of vocational education "is to assist persons in securing the abilities, information, attitudes,and understanding which will enable them to enter employment in agiven occupation or field of work, or to make advancement in thatoccupation after they have encountered it." 9 The program operatesin the following manner: States willing to match Federal funds10 andaccept Federal supervision u receive grants from the Federal Government to help pay "the salaries of teachers, supervisors, and directors ofagricultural subjects, and teachers of trade, home economics, and industrial subjects, and in the preparation of teachers." ia
Since its inception in the Smith-Hughes Vocational Education Act
of 1917," the program has been in continuous operation. Later statuteshave broadened its scope.14 Federal, State, and local contributions havegrown steadily until today they amount to over $228 million annually.15
Over 3% million students 16 and almost 90,000 teachers participate.17
Training is given to full-time and part-time secondary school students
and to students in evening courses. Many of the latter are adults whoare either learning new skills, or keeping current in skills alreadyacquired.
Federal money supports courses in agricultural, distributive, home economics, trade and industrial, practical nursing, and area vocational education programs. Distributive education is designed to train studentsfor salesmanship and other marketing activities.18 The program intrade and industrial education is designed to teach basic trade and industry skills.19 "Among groups served are the following: Journeymen,technicians, and other industrial workers; apprentices and other learners; out-of-school youth and in-school youth. . . ." 20 The area vocational education program has two basic objectives: To provide trainingfor occupations in science and technology that are of particular importance to national defense;21 and to extend vocational education opportunities to areas whose residents are not otherwise adequately served.22
Distributive and trades and industrial programs can operate on a cooperative part-time basis for high school students who spend part timein school and part time at work.23 The principle of cooperative educa- 96
tion has been extended by many of the States to provide business education without the aid of Federal grants.
Vocational training received through the public schools, and madepossible by Federal grant funds, is the principal means of acquiringmany of the basic industrial skills. Therefore the ability of membersof minority groups to obtain employment in skilled jobs is often limitedby the availability of these programs. To the extent that minoritygroup members are denied the opportunity to receive such training, theyare deprived of equal opportunity in employment.
No statutes explicitly outline Federal policy regarding the availabilityof training for members of minority groups. A regulation issued in1948, however, does provide that: 24 "In the expenditure of Federalfunds and in the administration of federally aided programs of vocationaleducation, there shall be no discrimination because of race, creed, orcolor." As construed and applied by HEW, this does not preclude thegranting of funds to segregated schools or for programs which providemore subjects and better qualified teachers for white than for Negroschools. 26
In Atlanta, for example, the use of segregated public schools for
vocational training produces a marked difference in the types of programs available to different racial groups. As shown in table i, thecourse of study available to whites is not the same as the one availableto Negroes. At Carver school, Negroes are trained for "jobs traditionally open to them." These are the most menial, requiring the lowestlevel of skills. They are precisely the ones for which the national economy has less and less need as it turns to new techniques and new industries. Smith-Hughes, the corresponding white school, offers trainingin many of the newer skills in increasing demand today. It offers threeprograms in technology; none is offered to Negroes. It offers eightprograms of apprenticeship training; one is available to Negroes. Itoffers seven programs in adult trade extension; two are available toNegroes. While it is true that the Negro school offers 15 trade preparatory courses for high school students as opposed to only 6 at the whiteschool, even here most of those open to Negroes teach only low levelskills.
The curriculum of the Negro vocational high school in Atlanta wasset up to provide training in "those occupations that Negroes could get employment in, in this community." 28 This standard, approved by HEW,is hardly conducive to equal opportunity to either education or employment. 27 Its effect is to perpetuate the rigid racial employment patternsof the past and project them into the future. For even if jobs traditionallyclosed on racial grounds were suddenly opened, few, if any, Negroeswould have had enough training to qualify for them. Nor, under a
system in which teachers and students must be members of the samerace, could such training be readily provided. For few, if any, Negroeshave the occupational experience needed to teach in vocational schools. 28
In many trades it would be years before an adequate corps of Negro
teachers could be built up.
TABLE i.2014 Trade and industrial education courses offered at the twovocational schools in Atlanta, Ga.
Smith-Hughes (White) Carver (Negro) A. Technology:
E lectronics (preparatory)
Tool and die design (extension) __Instrumentation (extension)
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Trade preparatory:
Radio and television servicing Radio and television servicing.Machine shop
Refrigeration and air conditioning
Beauty culture Beauty culture.
Industrial power sewing Industrial power sewing.Practical nursing Practical nursing.
Commercial cooking.
Woodworking.
Short order cooking.Shoe repairing.
Auto mechanic.Tailoring.
Bricklaying.
Lathing and plastering.Furniture repairing.
Landscape gardening.
Drycleaning.
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Trade extension (apprenticeship) :
Electricity
Ironworking
Tool and die making
Steamfitting
Plumbing
Sheet metal
Painting and decorating
Carpentry
Bricklaying.
TABLE i.2014 Trade and industrial education courses offered at the twovocational schools in Atlanta, Ga. 2014Continued
Smith-Hughes (White) Carver (Negro)
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Trade extension:
Radio and television servicing
Blueprint reading and drafting
Gasfitting
Practical nursing Practical nursing.Pipe welding
Lead welding
Helearc welding
Catering.
Note: Related instruction at Carver in mathematics and science is offered inseparate classes for the technology and trade preparatory courses.
Source: Prepared Jan. 3, 1961, by Office of Trade and Industrial Director forVocational Education in Fulton County and Atlanta, Ga.
If in Atlanta vocational educational programs open to Negroes aremore limited than those offered to whites, they appear at least to reflectthe current employment demands of the community. In other parts ofGeorgia, however, vocational education curricula do not appear tobe based even on community needs. 29 Many counties offer Federal granttraining to whites but not to Negroes. While in some cases this mightbe...
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