The purpose of the study was to examine relationships which existed between selected demographics and college grade point averages “GPAs” for dislocated workers and non dislocated workers enrolled in career-technical courses at a rural community college. The variables included in the study are age, gender, and marital status. The study also reports identified educational goals of dislocated workers as well as the perceived enhancements and barriers to achieving the goals. This study was conducted to assist workforce investment network “WIN” personnel and college counselors in the advisement of dislocated workers interested in the pursuit of career-technical training. A survey research design was used to collect data from first semester career-technical students within a program at East Central Community College in Decatur, MS. An instrument designed by the researcher utilized three demographic items and three open-ended questions to collect the data within a two-week period. A total of 274 surveys were collected. The data were analyzed through the use of descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings of the study indicated the variables of age and gender were shown to have significant relationships with college GPA. Dislocated workers were found to be older, female, and to maintain a higher GPA than non-dislocated worker students. Responses to the open-ended questions revealed that the majority of dislocated workers stated graduation to be a primary goal. Enhancements included support from family and financial aid, most commonly in the form of Workforce Investment Act “WIA” funding. Dislocated workers responded that personal finances and time management skills were the most difficult barriers to overcome in regards to meeting educational goals.

The purpose of this study was to determine the perceptions of satisfaction of dislocated workers served by WIN Job Centers in the Mississippi Corridor Consortium. Four WIN Job Centers participated in this study: Northeast Mississippi Community College WIN Job Center in Corinth, Northwest Mississippi Community College WIN Job Center in Oxford, Itawamba Community College WIN Job Center in Tupelo, and the Golden Triangle WIN Job Center in Columbus that is operated by the Mississippi Department of Employment Security. This study was concerned with the following variables: facilities, staff, services, self-service facilities, and overall level of satisfaction. A survey design was employed in this study to collect and analyze the data. From the four WIN Job Centers, a total of 159 surveys were collected in the ten week period. An instrument created and utilized by the North Carolina Employment Security System titled “Customer Satisfaction Survey” was used to collect the data. The instrument was tested for internal consistency, and the Cronbach alpha coefficient was .793. The data collected from the surveys were tested using the One-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). Among conclusions for this study were the following: each of the four WIN Job Centers rated in the Excellent to Good rating in satisfaction for each of the following areas: staff, facilities, services, self-service facilities, and overall satisfaction; of the five null hypotheses, three were rejected due to there being a statistically significant difference in at least one of the centers with regards to facilities, staff, and services.

Att studera arbetslöshet hos män 55-65 år i en mellansvensk kommun har här varit i fokus. Syftet var att se hur de upplevde att bli arbetslösa, hur de såg på sina möjligheter på arbetsmarknaden samt var de la kontrollen för det som hänt dem, vilket avsåg orientering i locus of control. Tidigare genomförd forskning kretsade mycket kring hälsa. Män i åldern mellan 55 och 65 år fanns inte representerade. Kunskap kring vad som hände mentalt vid arbetslöshet saknades. Tillgänglighetsurval användes i ett mellansvenskt samhälle. Nio personer intervjuades och besvarade ett locus of control-test. Resultaten visade att de kände utanförskap, några trodde sig kunna få jobb igen, några längtade efter pension, de flesta kände sig diskriminerade pga. åldern. De intervjuade kände av problem med ekonomi och stress. Upplevd åldersdiskriminering kunde bero på att det då var hård konkurrens om de jobb som fanns att söka.