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Rapid technological changes in manufacturing, business, and health care, among other fields, mean that community college instructors and counselors must be informed about current trends in theory and learning, and equipped with up-to-date information about job requirements and opportunities. California's Vocational Education Instructor and Career Counselor Inservice Program was created to address this need. The primary goals of the program are to identify and expand linkages and exchanges between community colleges and the private sector, to upgrade the skills of counselors, and to ensure that vocational education instructors possess the most current technical information available. Through the program, California community colleges received $5,014,305 in grants and other sources of funding from 1986 to 1988 to develop inservice training programs for instructors and counselors. Projects ranged from short-term, job-site training of one instructor to large, multi-faceted activities involving as many as 20 instructors and counselors. The most successful projects involved intensive on-site company training, training at industry institutes after company training, team approaches, and good planning. Selected outcomes of the project for the two-year period included the following: (1) 217 companies participated in the training of 178 instructors and counselors, with 41% of the instructors teaching in technical disciplines; (2) 47.2% of the participants spent a month or less in training; (3) job shadowing, on-site company training, specialized industry institutes, and a combination of approaches were the most common types of training activities; and (4) the most measurable changes were updated curricula, new instructional methods and equipment, and new courses added to the program. (ALB)

The California community colleges are given state support to develop Employer-Based Training (EBT) programs. These programs address the economic development needs of local communities by offering training in new technologies, restructuring programs to meet industry needs, offering courses in starting a business to meet the needs of small firms, and participating as partners with local business and industry. In 1987-88, 32 EBT projects were funded, including five small business assistance/development, five economic development, nine new technology, four private sector, and nine combination new technology/private sector projects. Available data on these programs indicate that: (1) 68% of the participants were White, 16% Hispanic, 13% Asian, and 5% Black; (2) 65% of the participants were male; (3) while women and Hispanics were least likely to be employed prior to training, they were most likely to complete the training and demonstrated the greatest gains in obtaining employment after training; (4) most colleges had to remodel facilities to accommodate the project and most had to purchase or update equipment; and (5) 18 projects provided career counseling and/or assessment, 15 provided job placement assistance, 9 provided remedial instruction, and 6 provided mentoring. The report provides brief descriptions of the EBT projects. (ALB)