School-to-Work Transition

School to Work as a Developmental Transition

Transitions of any type bring with them periods of uncertainty and stress. In the transition from school to work, that stress is exacerbated by the fact that work is necessary to meet basic survival needs. In the United States, youth who do not attend college are more likely to be unemployed or to be employed in transient jobs with little opportunity for advancement. The lack of a college education results in significant decreases in lifetime earnings as well. These issues are particularly problematic for youth who are African American, Hispanic, and American Indian, all of whom have substantially higher unemployment rates, lower college attendance rates, and lower high school graduation rates than do White Americans.

A primary task of this time of transition is to develop the skills necessary to be an effective worker. Historically, this has involved learning specific skills related to trades or occupations and then moving into an entry-level job for which one has specifically prepared, similar to the training of an apprentice. However, in the current labor market, occupation-specific skills are often not as critical as transferable work skills. Employers report that they are seeking workers with broad skills in reading, writing, math, and communication (listening and speaking); the ability to work well with others, be creative, solve problems, and be organized; and an attitude of responsibility, self-management, and integrity.

This set of skills provides a foundation from which potential employees can learn job-specific skills more readily. It also emphasizes the need for career counselors to prepare students to be work ready rather than job ready. This need is reinforced by the reality that most people will change jobs multiple times over the course of their lives, leading many career theorists to point out that the most important task of career counseling may be to prepare young workers to be adaptable to changing labor and market demands. Essentially, the task of this developmental transition is to assume the skills and attitudes necessary to negotiate a rapidly changing work environment.

School to Work as a Policy and Reform Initiative

In response to a landmark report published in 1998 by the William T. Grant Foundation, The Forgotten Half: Pathways to Success for America's Youth and Young [Page 1618]Families, educators and policy makers began to look closely at the needs of work-bound or noncollege-bound youth and determined that the school-to-work transition in the United States was in significant need. In fact, former U.S. Secretary of Labor Ray Marshall remarked, in the early 1990s, that America had the worst school-to-work transition process of any of the industrialized nations. In contrast to other countries, particularly in Europe, that provide structured apprenticeship models to transition youth into work, the United States has very few services in place for work-bound youth, resulting in longer periods of struggle with part-time, low-paying jobs. In fact, work-bound youth receive approximately 10% of the values of services that college-enrolled youth receive.

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