The transition from school to work is a central developmental task with long-term implications for the financial and social status of individuals. We argue that dynamic adjustments of aspirations play a decisive role for a successful outcome of the school to work transition, particularly in the context of the German vocational training system.…

Notes increase in popularity of work-based learning and youth apprenticeship. Contends that counselors in educational settings are being downplayed and job mentors are being played up by leaders in youth apprenticeship movement. Encourages counselors to become actively involved in counseling persons regarding variety of forms of postsecondary…

Work-based postcompulsory education has been hindered by association with discredited youth training programs. Interviews with 381 British apprentices (55.7% response) show how this form of work-based education overcomes disadvantages of full-time education, has liberating potential, and is an attractive means of acquiring further education and…

The urban informal sector are the adolescents and adults of cities in developing countries who have had little or no education and expend much inventiveness and energy to avoid starvation, while working in activities such as pedlar or shoeshiner. What educational assistance could and should be provided for them is discussed. (RM)

A teacher at a nontraditional school describes how a 12-year-old boy with a background of personal loss and school failure was helped to find his way by an apprenticeship experience in which he reconstructed his school desk. The pivotal contribution came from the boy's mentor, while the school's contribution lay in what it didn't do. (SV)

While the United States has no effective bridges between school and work, half of West Germany's 16 to 18-year-olds learn a career in the workplace while attending school one day a week. This model can be adapted for American students to increase their employment opportunities and make academic learning easier. (Author/LHW)

This paper presents a series of propositions concerning processes that are at work in mentoring relationships, with each proposition accompanied by a brief discussion of the theory and research on which it is based. Examples are provided of the role of mentoring in the development of creative individuals. The propositions cover the following…

This document reports the oral and written testimony of witnesses who appeared before a House of Representatives hearing centered on the accomplishments of the Job Corps and the need for a new Job Corps center in Fresno, California. (The Job Corps is a 25-year-old program that trains disadvantaged youth and places them in jobs.) Witnesses, who…

This bulletin examines the labor market experience of youth in the United States and eight other industrial countries from the early 1960s to the late 1970s. The analysis focuses upon unemployment, the most visible and measurable form of labor underutilization. The report highlights the size of the youth unemployment problem and discusses some of…

Several decades of studies evaluating youth employment programs funded through the nation's second-chance system have demonstrated the shortcomings of programs that concentrate on work experience alone and try to reverse years of inadequate education, discrimination, and alienation in a few weeks or months. The School-to-Work Opportunities Act…