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Recruitment

The most common request in regard to recruitment was to improve

the testing, screening, and orientation process of the two recruitment
agencies, with emphasis on identifying the applicant's real interest in
the job being offered. Also suggested were: More flexibility in the use of
other recruitment sources, especially direct company recruitment in poverty
neighborhoods and referrals by other trainees; Faster, more automatic
certification of trainees who are known to be eligible for the program; A
closer relationship between agency counsellors and the firm, with counsellors
visiting the firm, if possible, to find out more about the training program;
More publicity about the programs.

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Reducing Turnover

Most of the recommendations offered as ways to reduce turnover among trainees dealt with the need for special counselling of trainees, coupled with an emphasis on the need for supervisors to understand thoroughly the special problems that many trainees faced. In some cases, this was amplified by the suggestions that a "buddy system" or a close one-to-one relationship between supervisor and trainees be encouraged.

Several firms recommended that financial incentives for good attendance habits be built into training programs. Others stressed the need for a thorough explanation of the reasons for company rules and their "fair but firm" application to trainees and regular employees alike.

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A few firms reported good results from weekly or daily group sessions where trainees are able to deal openly with both personal and job-related problems. They report that trainees are frequently better equipped to help each other solve these problems than are their official counsellors, who often lack experience with the special problems of poverty neighborhoods.

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Other recommendations dealt with: The need for top management to provide leadership by defining clearly its commitment to the goals of the program; The need for a meaningful job and upward mobility within the firm; and the development of career goals among trainees.

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All of these services are now being offered to MA Contract firms by

Coalition JOBS' permanent staff, and those services most in demand are

being expanded.

PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED

The Program Directors were asked to identify the problems they had encountered in carrying out the MA program, and to specify which of these had caused serious inconvenience, or had involved a significant proportion of trainees.

The most frequently mentioned problems were lateness and absenteeism among trainees. However, only about one in five (22%) of the companies said that absenteeism involved a significant number of trainees and only one in ten labeled lateness as "serious." Several companies noted that these were also problems among regular employees.

Aside from problems involving trainee work-habits, a "lack of experience with, or knowledge about problems of disadvantaged workers" was cited most often (35%). "Lengthy delay between application for, and approval of contracts" was mentioned by 28% of the companies (mostly White Collar) but less than one-third of those who experienced this problem considered it a serious difficulty.

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In addition to the problems listed above, six of those interviewed mentioned drugs, and five noted a lack of child care facilities for their trainees. Transportation problems were noted only by Airlines whose jobs were located at Kennedy Airport, and by a few outlying Manufacturing and Retail locations.

A few program directors voiced dissatisfaction with the quality of the services provided by subcontractors or consortia. They noted a lack of an experienced professional staff, absenteeism, lateness, and excessive turnover among teachers, and inadequate orientation of trainees. A lack of communication among consortium participants was also mentioned several

times.

Coalition JOBS also interviewed nine directors of MA training consortia. The problem they were most concerned about was a lack of understanding of, or commitment to the goals of the program on the part of some individual companies. Sometimes this resulted in failure on the part of the company to hire trainees for all the training positions pledged to the consortium when the original agreement was signed. At times, the consortia also encountered a reluctance on the part of the firms to release trainees for classroom instruction or special counselling.

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