preliminary findings of a study of individual referrals in MDTA which show these enrollees to be younger, whiter and more likely to be female and less likely to be disadvantaged, than enrollees in either skills centers or class-size groups.

Institutional training completers had about three times the income improvement of Institution pouts, but the latter gains

were still substantial. There was a consistent growth in income gains with longer length of training.

Among Institutional training occupations, health services "paid off" most handsomely, followed by machine trades, construction trades, food services/homemaking, clerical/sales and service trades, in that order. However, this ranking was heavily affected by those entering the labor force through the training route, therefore favoring occupations popular with females. Abstracting from the increases in labor force participation would bring construction trades to top ranking, followed by health services and machine trades. Only a scattering of niscellaneous skills seemed to lack substantial impact. Basic education and other components unaccompanied by skills training was reasonably effective for those previously out of the labor force, but had little wage and employment stability impact.

Shifting to OJT, the marginibi come gains between completers and dropouts was not as great, the former was still nearly double the latter. "Dropout" for an OJT enrollee, of course, has a different meaning than for Institutional params, requiring the enrollee to quit or lose his job. The relationship between length of training and 'OJT,

income gain was less consistent for OJT, peaking at about six to nine

months after some fluctuation.

However, the nature of OJT must be

kept in mind. Ninety percent of the OJT enrollees, as contrasted with sixty-six percent of the Institutional, had held at least one job in the pretraining period and many were probably being upgraded without changing employers. Frequently, as OJT enrollees were con

tacted for interview, they would respond, "But I have never been enrolled in a training program!" As a generality, the job rather tham the training content was probably the goal and length of training was of uncertain relevance.

Among OJT occupations, various miscellaneous skills brought the greatest income gains followed by mechanics/repair, food services/ homemaking, clerical/sales and construction trades, with service trades and machine skills bringing up the rear; a quite different ranking than for Institutional with food services/homemaking having surprisingly favorable results in both areas.

MDTA and Institutional Change

A troublesome aspect of MDTA administration has been the necessity of coordinating the efforts of employment services and vocational educators at the state and local levels and, consequently, the efforts of the Departments of Labor and Health, Education, and Welfare. Yet, in retrospect, it has been worth it and the program and the labor market institutions would be worse off without that dual involvement.

The not always felicitous marriage performed ten years ago with the Nations' education associations holding the shotgun while the Congress performed the ceremony bound together two federal agencies with very different philosophies. To the Labor Department, the job

has been the thing, the more immediate the better with training to be minimized and dispensed with where possible. To the U.S. Office of Education, the more training the better, with almost an implication with some officials that the jobs will take care of themselves.

With

HEW generally ignoring its MDTA responsibilities and the Labor Department preferring divorce as long as it could maintain custody, a small group within USOE's Division of Manpower Development and Training can be credited with protecting the union and keeping both partners reasonably honest. They have been primarily responsible for the institutional changes NDTA has wrought in the schools while the Labor Department has . brought about major reorientation within the public employment service. The major institutional achievement from the education side has been the development of the skills center, an institution dedicated to the training of the disadvantaged and to providing on site as many as possible of the supportive services necessary to make that training effective. At the same time, however, MDTA has contributed to modular training, open entry/open exit practices, the development of training clusters, and the integration of remedial basic education and skill training--practices which are spreading throughout all of education.

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At the same time, the Labor Department has been largely successful in redirecting the federal-state employment service from an administrator of unemployment insurance and a labor exchange seeking to meet employer needs to an overall manpower agency emphasizing service to those who need it most.

Federal manpower resources have enabled it to·

go far beyond a simple labor exchange function into the development of Using MDTA funding and authority as leverage, the

human resources.

Labor Department has developed new labor market techniques through research and experiment and has introduced and made substantial progress in the practices of manpower planning at the state and local level.

Weaknesses of MDTA

Since repentance is no longer possible, criticism has no place in a funeral sermon. Faith in the continuance of the substance, if not the name, of MDTA justifies and demands tempering praise for past achievement with identification of areas where improvement is needed.

First, an inherent weakness about which little can be done within the limits of a training program; Improvement of the earnings of those plagued by low incomes and employment requires a combination of employability, employment opportunities and access to jobs. MDTA's role is primarily the former, though enrollment may place the individual into a system leading to the latter. It contains no tools for job creation. Nuch of the disillusion with the program which exists among the disadvantaged arises from its use in locations in which employment opportunities are scarce or out of reach because of obstacles other than the individual's lack of skills. To enroll them was to set them up for disappointment. Solution lies only in better integration of NDTA's services with subsidized private and public job creation, equal employment opportunity efforts and labor market services and more training for jobs increasing in demand as contrasted with thos available primarily because of high turnover.

Other limitations are more actionable.

1. Because of an understandable desire to serve as many people as possible within available budgets, there has been a tendency to concentrate on occupations requiring only limited training and some tendency to avoid people needing a great deal of remediation. The case of identifying occupations with "reasonable expectation of employment" within this predominately high turnover range of jobs has reinforced this tendency. But the MDTA placements,

to no one's surprise, have experienced similar turnover. The "lean program for many or rich program for a few choice is always a difficult one but the data seems to support a higher pay off for the greater per capita investment.

2. In compensating for those traditional institutions unwilling or incapable of serving the disadvantaged, MDTA, particularly the skills center has, to some degree, created a set of segregated institutions, often in second class facilities, reinforcing the separation of the disadvantaged for the mainstream and catering to the secondary labor market. The few instances where MDTA projects are integrated into community, colleges and other "mainstream" institutions suggest that it can be done, is worth doing but isn't

easy.

3.

The 35 percent skill shortage rounding out the 65 percent disadvantaged has become a source of leeway rather than an economic scrvice. No real attempt is made to identify skill shortages of which there are few within the reach of DTA as presently administered. There are undoubtedly useful roles for MDTA outside of service to the disadvantaged. Some of the current activities on behalf of displaced