Evaluating the success or failure of work force training programs is most often accomplished through the reporting of "objective" data. Rarely are the students' views of their own success in such a training program formally solicited or applied in any useful way. But participant perceptions can be a critical barometer of quality and ought to be taken into account in any program which aims for continuous improvement. This research was undertaken to allow people to present their experiences and meanings in ways which can contribute to just such program improvement. The study was guided by the following research questions: 1. How do student participants define success? 2. How did their Skill Center training program meet their definition of success? It was expected that information gathered from the study would provide information that could: (a) provide and clarify student participant perspectives in work force training and employment programs, and (b) help program operators who run this and similar programs make informed decisions based on participants' definitions of success and their perceptions of what successes they experienced from the Skill Center program. The data were collected through in-depth interviews with fifteen graduates self-identified as successful. Grounded theory methodology was followed to develop the findings. Among all informants, the most often cited theme was that of "connecting" with instructors and fellow students. A second component of this central theme was a "cohort" feeling; a perception of warmth, support, and a sense of family that was common to all of the students interviewed. Many students were balancing feelings of anger, frustration, anxiety, and despair, and it was the human connections with the other members of the skill training center that enabled many, if not most, students to persist in training. For all of the interviewees, the affective value of their training was more intrinsic (e.g., helped them build their confidence and self-esteem) than extrinsic (e.g., helped them obtain and retain a job). This contributes to an inherent tension between individuals and agencies, since agency perspectives on success are based almost solely on extrinsic measures. / Graduation date: 1996

The Oregon Employment Division (ES) and Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) funded agencies frequently provide employment and training services to the same populations, resulting in increased demands to coordinate the two systems efforts and avoid duplications of service. This study examined coordination between local ES offices and JTPA agencies in eight Oregon communities. A literature survey was utilized to supplement the information acquired from 193 responses to a cooperation and coordination questionnaire which was developed and administered to ES and JTPA staff in the eight communities studied. Frequency distributions were analyzed using a mean statistic at the individual, organization and system level to determine that the two systems were moderately coordinated. / Graduation date: 1991

Manpower programs for the disadvantaged have been operated in the United States for approximately fifteen years. The programs - introduced under the authority of the Manpower Development and Training Act of 1961, the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, the 1967 amendments to the Social Security Act, and the Comprehensive Training and Employment Act of 1973 - were all concerned with the employment and earning of certain groups. This body of legislation was intended to intervene in particular sectors of the labor market having a deferentially high unemployment rate, not offset by higher wages and other benefits. The intent was to reduce labor market immobility due to geographical location, lack of skills, and age, sex or color discrimination. The ultimate objective of the manpower programs was to improve the employment and earnings experience of the disadvantaged target population. Little is presently known about the impact of the programs on the earnings and employment of participants after they leave the program. This retrospective study attempts to determine the impact of the Portland Concentrated Employment Program (PCEP) on the post-training incomes of 1985 PCEP participants and a control group of 1150 individuals applying to or enrolled in the peEP between 1968 and 1972. The control group is a group of persons who are statistically equivalent to the participants as far as demographic variables and their application to and eligibility for the PCEP; but, who for some unknown reason, did not enter the program. Follow-up income information was purchased from the U.S. Social Security Administration in coded cells containing five or more individuals. The five digit numeric code classified individuals by participation or nonparticipation in the PCEP, sex, race, age, and education. The Analysis of Variance statistical technique was utilized in analyzing the 1973 mean earnings of the code groups included in the study. The analysis of the data resulted in the following major findings. Of the five independent variables - participation, sex, race, age, and education - there were significant interactions between participation, race, and age; participation and race; and sex and age. The first interaction is a result of Black participants and the White control group earning their highest incomes between the ages of 21-25 years. White participants and the Black control group had generally rising incomes as age increased up to 45 years. All groups 45 years and over earned low incomes relative to other groups in the study. The interaction between participation and race resulted from the Black control group in most cases earning more than all other groups in the study. Black participants earned slightly more than White participants. But, the White participant group appears to have benefitted more from participation in the PCEP, in comparison with the White control group, than did Black participants. Enrollment in the PCEP in most cases did not raise the incomes of participants significantly higher than the incomes of the control group. Sex and age demonstrated a significant interaction which was primarily due to the poor performance of males ages 45 and over. In all other age groups males earned significantly more than females. The groups with a high school degree and under 45 years of age earned significantly more than those without a high school degree. The education group benefiting most from participation in the PCEP included persons with 1-9 years of education. Over seventy percent of the persons included in this study in both the participant and the control groups earned incomes below the official 1973 poverty level. Participation in the PCEP did not raise the mean earnings of groups studied above the poverty level. Considering income alone, approximately thirteen percent of the participants in comparison with their control groups are considered to have benefited significantly from the PCEP. Six percent of the participants may have gained more benefit from continued labor market participation than from enrollment in the PCEP. The findings of this study indicate that the benefits to participants in the PCEP were not as substantial as expected.

This was an exploratory study of some of the relationships between a Community Work and Training Program and the family functioning of certain participants in that program. The CWT projects studied were those operated by the Public Welfare Departments of Clackamas and Marion Counties, Oregon during the three –year span between January 1, 1965 and December 31, 1967. Participants' names were randomly selected from the records of the two welfare offices and the respondents interviewed during the summer of 1968. A questionnaire was developed which consisted of twenty primarily open-ended questions and this was administered to a total of sixty couples. The questions focused on changes in parental, child, financial, marital and social functioning which occurred during the time the husband participated in the work training project. To identify these changes a list was drawn up of fourteen indices of family functioning and these indices were later categorized under two general headings, external and internal to the family. The basic hypothesis was that the CWT Program contributed to positive family functioning. This was expanded into a guiding hypothesis which stated that family functioning is improved through participation in the CWT Program and that this improvement is associated with the program, work itself and the social work services provided by the welfare departments. To determine the validity of these hypotheses a number of null hypotheses were then advanced and tested. The findings of the study were as follows. Internal family functioning was improved during participation on CWT and this improvement affected the total family unit. External functioning, however, deteriorated and this was attributed to the reduced income resulting from the families’ dependence for support upon Public Welfare. The improved internal functioning was associated with the social work services provided and with the work itself. This improvement was evident despite the reported failure of the program to meet the two most important expectations of the participants, namely material benefits and vocational training. The most important limitations noted in the research were two. The first was the lapse of time which occurred between the interviews and the period when many of the participants actually worked on the program. Inevitably, such lapse of time had some effect on respondents’ recall. Second in importance in considering the possible application of the findings was the fact that some 15.58% of the respondents from Marion County were Spanish-Americans. This minority group would conceivably not be representative of another area. Among the program’s negative features mentioned by participants was the lack of choice available in job assignment and the inadequate compensation for performance on the job. Despite these, however, the overall conclusion reached by the research group was that participants in the CWT projects saw the program as beneficial in helping to maintain family life.

This thesis is an exploratory study of the effects of two job training programs for the poor in Portland, Oregon. It seeks to illustrate that training programs are designed around certain theoretical conceptions or models of poverty and that these theoretical conceptions ultimately have a strong effect on the enrollees in programs designed on the given theoretical model. Two general theoretical models have been extracted from the literature. The first is the "Culture of Poverty" model and the second may be called the "Closed Opportunity Structure" model. The culture of poverty model posits that the poor are unable to escape poverty because of certain cultural aspects of their conditions which inhibit them from taking advantage of increased opportunities when they are offered them. Some of the major aspects of the culture of poverty are: (1) The poor do not share the values of the dominant culture, e.g., that hard work brings rewards, and deferring immediate gratification also produces future rewards; (2) The poor do not participate fully in the major institutions of the society; (3) The inability to take advantage of increased opportunities is learned through the parents; and (4) This inability tends to perpetuate the culture of poverty. The closed opportunity model, on the other hand, posits that the poor do indeed share the values of the dominant culture but that they have been denied the opportunity to realize these values, i.e., the poor do not defer gratification because even if they did so their chances of receiving a future reward are low. The closed opportunity structure model sees the problems of the poor as being grounded in the larger society as opposed to being inherent deficiencies of the poor themselves. I have selected two programs for this study on the basis of their subscription to one or the other theoretical models discussed above. Portland Residential Manpower Center (PRMC), an urban Job Corps camp, was chosen because its program design conforms to the culture of poverty model in that it attempts to resocialize the trainee so that he may better fit into the society; conversely, the Portland New Careers Project was chosen because it subscribed to the closed opportunity model in that it does not see these socialization attempts as necessary, but rather, it places its trainees in social service positions with various governmental agencies and provides them with education which, hopefully, will enable the trainee to move into a more professional position at the agency. The study then attempts to describe the effects of each of these programs on its enrollees. The method of direct observation was chosen for several reasons: (1) The exploratory nature of the study; (2) The absence of a clear cut hypothesis to test; (3) inadequate statistical data available which would give me answers to the kinds of questions I had asked. The findings indicated that the two programs had very different effects on the enrollees. PRMC, because of its highly structured character and complete program of socialization, produced a high degree of distrust of the program on the part of the trainees. PRMC's socialization attempts were seen as largely unnecessary by the trainees and they felt that these attempts interfered with the primary task of skill training. New Careers, on the other hand, lacks a highly structured program. Aside from being expected to put in time at the placement agency and to attend his classes, the trainee is left largely on his own. This almost complete lack of structure has made it exceedingly difficult for many of the trainees to progress in the program because they have few guidelines for their training. The New Careerist learns what is expected of him through trial and error. The findings of this study suggest that social scientists should be aware of the consequences of their theoretical models on the people these models attempt to deal with. Both programs studies exhibited deficiencies which, in varying degrees, are the result of the theoretical models upon which the program is based.