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INTRODUCTION
WELLFORD W. WILMS
Graduate School of Education, University of California at Los Angeles, U.S.A.
Six years ago at a conference in Arusha, policies, the ~ntern~~ona~ Journey of Edwa-
Tanzania a suggestion was made that the best tional Development, the University of Cali-
policy for surplus, would-be workers was to fornia-Los Angeles’ Institute of Industrial
train them. But, ‘Train Them for What?’ was a Relations and Graduate School of Education,
question left unanswered. The logic of this and California’s Employment Training Panel
argument was that by training young men and co-sponsored a conference to discuss these
women, everyone would have an equal chance issues. Twenty policymakers and education
at getting a job. Such a policy had a certain and training authorities convened for a week at
political appeal because on its face, everyone UCLA in November 1987, drawn from the
would win: politicians could project a ‘take- United Kingdom, Uruguay, the United States,
charge’ image to their constituencies who most the Peoples’ Republic of China, Singapore,
often believe in the value of vocational Thailand and Tanzania.
training, and funds would flow through In particular, conferees were asked to
established pipelines back home to the schools examine a significant experiment in job
and agencies responsible for training. training known as the California Employment
Six years later a new world reality has forced Training Panel. The Panel, which is described in
most nations to answer the question ‘Train Duscha’s paper and Moore’s report, operates
Them for What?’ and to concern themselves as a broker, financing training in business and
with ways of paying for it. In a very short labor organizations, as well as in conventional
period of time, the world’s economic center schools. It differs from the traditional training
has shifted from Europe and the eastern approach in that it pays only for successes.
United States to the nations and city states that Training agencies are reimbursed only for
ring the Pacific Ocean. Who would have those trainees who successfully complete the
thought six years ago that Korea would have training and who remain on a related private
quietly garnered a huge share of the world’s sector job for at least 90 days.
shipbuilding, or that it would boast the most While most conferees saw how such an
efficient steel production in the world? Who approach advanced the goal of efficiency in the
would have thought that rice production would U.S., many had difficulty applying it to their
rise 30040% in Indonesia, thus averting own nations. In a number of nations,
projected food shortages and instead creating established traditional education and training
food surpluses? The effect of these rapid and patterns thwarted the best attempts at change,
unpredictabie changes has been uneven. Some while in others too few modem sector jobs
nations have experienced boom times, while exist to meet the demands by rapidly growing
other. have witnessed economic stagnation, populations. In the face of intense demand for
recession and depression. too few jobs, policymakers are frequently
One fairly uniform response has been for forced to retreat to policies that advance equity
most nations to back away from the seemingly over efficiency to survive. In other words,
sensible and politically saleable notion of political realities demand that training be
training everyone for jobs, to one that spread around as a message of hope to the
underscores efficiency, or doing more with unemployed. Thus, in many nations, training
less. In an effort to examine the impact of becomes regarded as an opportunity to
world economic forces on national training compete for a job, rather than as a means to
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152 INTRODUCI’ION
employment. In other nations, hard pressed by Salaam, Kenneth King of the University of
the lack of resources and too few jobs to go Edinburgh, John Middleton of the World Bank
around, training is further disconnected from and William Ozanne of The International
the job market by emphasizing training for Journal of Educational Development, each
entrepreneurship, thus placing the responsi- sketch different facets of national responses to
bility for economic development on the a dynamic world economy. Special reports by
individual worker. Zou Tianxing of the China Central Institute
In short, despite the universal acknowledge- of Research and Wu Yibin of The Shenzhen
ment that changes in the world’s economy are Educational Research Institute describe views
dictating changes in individual nations’ ap- of the Peoples’ Republic of China. Final
proaches to job training, the patterns of special reports by Steve Duscha of the
adaptation are highly varied. The papers that California Employment Training Panel and
William Ozanne and I have selected for this Richard Moore of the Training Research
special theme issue reflect such variety. Papers Corporation round out the selection with an
by Maria Ducci of Uruguay’s CINTERFOR, analysis of California’s experiment in per-
Abel Ishumi of the University of Dar es formance contracting for job training.
