Review
Learning To Work: The Case For Reintegrating Job Training And Education offers a comprehensive assessment of job training programs in the United State, explaining why their success has been limited, and provides a practical vision for reform. Over the past 30 years, job training programs have proliferated in response to mounting problems of unemployment, poverty, and expanding welfare rolls. These programs and the institutions that administer them have grown in number and complexity, making it increasingly difficult for policymakers to interpret their effectiveness. Norton Grubb finds that existing programs are expensive and do not succeed in bringing individuals out of welfare dependence over the long term. He links the root of current problems with job training to the separation of job training programs from the more successful educational system. Grubb proposes consolidating the two domains into a clearly defined hierarchy of programs that combine school- and work-based instruction and employ proven methods of student-centered, project-based teaching. By linking programs tailored to every level of need and replacing short-term job training with long-term education, a system could be created to enable individuals to achieve increasing levels of economic success. Learning To Work contains a wealth of information of critical importance. Learning To Work makes a vital contribution to the current national debate over welfare and educational reforms. -- Midwest Book Review
