committee effort. Yet the additional data, the sharpening of some issues, the relative obscurity of the congressional publication, the availability to a different audience and the completion of a series merit publication of this monograph. April 1968 Garth L. Mangum Co-Director Center for Manpower Policy Studies Origin and Achievements of the 1963 Act Findings of the Panel of Consultants The Status of Vocational Education Who Needs and Who Gets Vocational Education Trends in Educational Attainment The Adequacy of Vocational Education Innovations in Vocational Education Understanding the World of Work TABLES 1. Total Enrollment in Vocational Education, Fiscal Years 1960-1967 2. Vocational Education Enrollment Summary by Occupational Category and Educational Level, Fiscal Years 1964 and 1966 3. Expenditures for Vocational Education 8 9 13 4. The Changing Educational Pattern of Major Occupational Groups, 1952 and 1965 26 5. Comparison of High School Graduates by Program and Socio-Economic Background 28 6. Comparison of High School Graduates by Program and Ability 28 7. Percent of Twelfth Grade Students with Vocational Training by Region, SMSA Status and Race 29 8. Dropout Rates of High School Students by Program and Ability Quartile 9. Comparison of Dropout Rates of Vocational and General High School Students by Ability and SocioEconomic Backgrounds 32 10. Training-Relatedness of First Jobs Obtained by Graduates From Eleven Selected Vocational Programs 33 11. Comparative Weekly Earnings Per 100 PersonsFive Years After High School Graduation 34 INTRODUCTION The focus of federal manpower policies and programs during the 1960's can be illustrated by the changing relationship between preventive and remedial programs. In 1961, $50 million was appropriated for vocational education, primarily to supply skills for new entrants to the labor market, compared to $10 million to remedy the employment handicaps of those facing various disadvantages in competing for jobs. By 1968, not only had total manpower expenditures increased eight-fold, but the balance had shifted dramatically. Vocational education was getting more than $250 million per year from the federal treasury, but remedial skill training, work experience and adult basic education programs were receiving $1.8 billion. It was hoped that general education measures such as Head Start and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act could, among other goals, be long-run preventives for employment problems. However, of all the manpower legislation of the 1960's, only the Vocational Education Act of 1963 had as its immediate objective prevention of the influx of unprepared youth into the labor market. The crisis nature of the policies of the decade is illustrated by the balance between prevention and remediation. However, the gap between intention and achievement is more often wide than narrow. The intent of the Vocational Education Act of 1963 was no less than a reorientation of the traditional emphasis from filling the requirements of the labor market to meeting the needs of people. Whether the reorientation has, indeed, been accomplished, what is the current status of vocational education and where the program appears to be headed are the subjects of this paper. ORIGIN AND ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE 1963 ACT The Vocational Education Act of 1963 represented the first basic reconsideration of vocational education since 1917. In the latter year, Congress provided $7 million per year in matching grants for training in agriculture, home economics and "trade and industry" occupations. By 1963, distributive education, practical nursing, fishery occupations and technical training had been added to the list of occupational categories, and federal appropriations for vocational education had increased to $55 million. However, the nature of the program remained unchanged-federal matching grants were made available to the states to be spent in specified amounts for training in each of the seven occupational categories with a minimum of federal direction or involvement. The immediate motivation for the 1963 Act was the high level of unemployment among untrained and inexperienced youth. Longer term criticism alleged a failure to change occupational emphases in keeping with an increasingly sophisticated technical economy. More dimly recognized, but implicit, was the growing need for formal preparation for employment. The 1963 Act was the immediate product of a Panel of Consultants on Vocational Education established at the direction of President John F. Kennedy in 1961. The Act's contributions and future needs cannot be evaluated apart from consideration of the general status of vocational education. Findings of the Panel of Consultants The panel of consultants, after more than a year of deliberation, concluded that vocational education was guilty of two |