Music Groups to Sing Praises of Job Training : They’ll Tell Teen-Agers That ‘Work Works’

Corporate leaders and three of the nation’s most popular musical groups on Monday announced a drive to encourage American youths to prepare themselves for a future in the work force.

“This is a long-term commitment,” William H. Kolberg, president of the National Alliance of Business, told a new conference. “This is a very competitive world. We need every single young person to be educated, to be available, to want to work and to be productive.”

Noting that youth unemployment was triple adult unemployment, Kolberg said there are thousands of young people who could benefit from job training but are not getting the proper information.

Each year’s school dropouts cost the nation $240 billion in lost income and productivity over their lifetimes, he said, adding that the figure “doesn’t even begin to take in the costs due to drugs and alcohol abuse, to crime, to simple human misery and despair.”

The program, involving Kolberg’s group, the National Assn. of Broadcasters and the nation’s job training system, will use the popularity of musical groups Aerosmith, Los Lobos and Run-DMC to promote the message of “Work Works.”

‘Kids Will Listen’

“When these kids won’t listen to us, they will listen to them. We are determined to make a dent in this problem,” Kolberg said.

He said that Run-DMC alone “will play to more than one million people at their concerts this summer--and if we can reach a fraction of them with the message that work works and that jobs and skills training is available, then we can make a difference.”

Each of the rock groups will record public service announcements, appear in press conferences with officials in cities on their tour and donate job information booths at each of their concert sites, where members of the audience can apply for jobs and training, Kolberg said.

Also at the news conference were the three members of Run-DMC--Joseph Simmons, Darryl McDaniels and Jason Mizell.

The group also has been active in the Drug Enforcement Administration’s anti-drug promotion, raising money for famine relief in Africa and the Special Olympics and talking to teen-agers about gangs and the need for education.

“We don’t want to preach. We can only set an example by being involved with a program like this,” said McDaniels.