Discusses existing traditional industry-education cooperative ventures and decreasing enrollment rates in these programs and reasons for the decreases. The article also examines the role of universities in job training and the conflict between corporate training and public education. (CT)

Reviews the status of federal initiatives to reform the U.S. employment and training system (one-stop career centers, skill standards, School-to-Work Opportunities Act). Notes uncertainties regarding the effect the new Congress will have on attempts to improve the system. (SK)

Two companies are attempting to provide job training and employment opportunities in inner-city Los Angeles: U.S. Electricar opened a plant to help California meet a requirement to increase the proportion of electric vehicles on its roads, and Pioneer Electronics funds Pioneer Academy where high school students study electronics in the afternoons.…

In Ford's ASSET program (Automotive Student Service Educational Training), students sponsored by auto dealerships complete community college auto mechanics courses specifically for Ford cars. Dealers provide uniforms, pay students during work/study, and hire them after they attain associate degrees. (SK)

As the shortage of skilled workers reached crisis proportions in the metalworking trades, employers must scramble to beef up internal training efforts and to rebuild a strained relationship with vocational schools. (Author)