Steven Gunderson: “I rise in strong support of the conference agreement on H.R. 2884, the School-to-Work Opportunities Act of 1994. Similar…”

“I rise in strong support of the conference agreement on H.R. 2884, the School-to-Work Opportunities Act of 1994. Similar to legislation that my colleague from Pennsylvania, Mr. Goodling and I introduced last year, this bill is designed to establish high quality, work-based learning programs throughout the United States, that train youth for skilled, high wage careers which do not require a 4-year college degree. Establishment of such a school-to-work transition system in this country, would address a serious inadequacy in this Nation's educational system, as well as significantly improve the quality of the U.S. work force--enabling the United States to better compete in the global marketplace. Demographic trends, technological change, increased international competition, a changing workplace, and inadequacy of our U.S. education and training systems have resulted in shortages of skilled workers, and an excess of unskilled, hard-to-employ individuals. A significant proportion of U.S. youth graduate from high school with inadequate basic skills and totally lacking in work-readiness competencies. Yet the United States is the only major industrial nation lacking formal system for helping youth make the transition from school to work.”