Vital Link Partnership Benefits Everyone : Public and Private Sectors Help Each Other to Get Youths Ready for Work Force

Some educators say that public schools often do a good job serving the best 25% of the students, those bound for college, and the worst 25%, those clearly needing help. But the 50% who make up the broad middle, slogging through class and earning a C average, too often are overlooked.

To help remedy the perceived shortcoming, a Washington-based group of chief executives of mid-sized companies called the American Business Conference started a new program four years ago. It was called Vital Link, and it was designed to improve the job skills of students who would not be going on to college. The feeling was that without the program, the workers would be playing catchup in a worldwide economy where the competition often was against overseas workers.

Vital Link programs operate in New Jersey, Texas, and a number of Orange County school districts, including Santa Ana, Irvine, Laguna Beach, Anaheim and Los Alamitos. Business people said it improved the quality of those entering the work force; students said the program gave them interesting classes.

The program is a good partnership between the public sector and private firms. Companies large and small send guest speakers into the classrooms and offer internships to students. Teen-agers also get a close look at business by spending a day accompanying a worker on the job.

Hundreds of students in Orange County already have entered the business world after benefiting from the Vital Link program in high school. Companies said the new hires usually were better prepared for the workplace than those who did not go through the program.

Program officials said that for the first few years Vital Link had no budget at all. Now it has salaried part-time executive directors, financed by contributions by private firms in Orange County, an indication of what the companies think of the program and of their desire to get good workers.

The schools were wise to solicit business help, and the companies were smart to realize that they need trained workers and that schools need all the assistance they can get.