1. Project Build: Integrating Technical and Employability Skills in a Construction Industry-Based Welfare-to-Work Training Program.
- Author
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Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Community Outreach Partnership Center. and Overtoom, Christine G.
- Abstract
Project Build is an eight-week course in construction industry basics for unemployed residents of the neighborhoods surrounding The Ohio State University. Developing curriculum for Project Build revealed that existing training materials in the construction industry focus on technical skills. Extensive conversations with industry experts about melding employment and job-specific skills became part of the collaborative process. Although technical skills prepared Project Build participants for entry-level employment and were instrumental in getting them "in the door," they were not enough. Industry experts articulated that employees are more likely to keep the job and progress in a career if training is integrated with employment skills. Teaching and learning employability skills was consistent with the emerging needs of a world economy in a high performance work environment. The literature was decidedly absent or unclear about how to facilitate employability skills assessment. Three criteria were cited for assessing employability skills: validity of an assessment rests on job analysis; the skill assessed should be teachable; and each assessment must be evaluated in the context of its purpose. (Contains 25 references.) (YLB)
- Published
- 2000