ERIC Number: ED471610
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2000
Pages: 31
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Snakes and Ladders: Coherence in Training for Office Workers. Training Matters: Working Paper Series.
de Wolff, Alice; Hynes, Maureen
Despite Ontario's profusion of training programs, diplomas, and certificates for office workers, they need coherence and transferability in training that makes it possible to keep up with changes in their current work, and they need their work experience and training to be transferable to training for other occupations. There is a growing disjuncture among the new work, training needs of office workers, and kinds of training available. Office work is becoming more complex, and its links with other occupations need to be made more specific. Training is being delivered in shorter, more fragmented pieces that particularly focus on technical training or the so-called "soft" employability skills. Entry-level training is getting shorter, while entry-level requirements for many office support jobs are becoming more complex. Cuts in public funding to college and community-based programs have resulted in fewer seats in public programs. Setting standards--sometimes seen as a panacea or, at least, the requisite starting-point for a coherent training system--would add to the confusion and opacity of training options for individual workers. It would also be an instrument to further privatize training. Making training a more "profitable" enterprise makes it less accessible to workers. Through activism, advocacy, and support of unions and organizations, a truly worker-centered and worker-driven training system could begin to eliminate the current confusion, fragmentation, inequities, and ineffectiveness of training for office workers. (Appendixes include 31 endnotes and 18 references.) (YLB)
Descriptors: Access to Education, Activism, Adult Education, Advocacy, Articulation (Education), Delivery Systems, Developed Nations, Educational Finance, Educational Policy, Educational Quality, Employment Qualifications, Entry Workers, Foreign Countries, Job Training, Office Occupations, Office Occupations Education, Postsecondary Education, Private Education, Public Education, Standard Setting, Transfer of Training, Unions
Centre for Research on Work and Society, 276 York Lanes, York University, North York, Ontario, M3J 1P3 ($10 Canadian). Tel: 416-736-5612; Fax: 416-736-5916; Web site: http://www.yorku.ca/crws/network/english/english.htm.
Publication Type: Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Ottawa (Ontario).; York Univ., Toronto (Ontario). Labour Education and Training Research Network.
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Canada
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A