‘Hire Education’

Forget Multiculturalism 101 and alcohol-free fraternities. The new frontier in higher education is “hire education”--courses custom-designed by colleges to fit the needs of employers.

Instead of merely marketing existing courses, many schools are calling on businesses--or whole industries--to find out what skills their employees need. Then they design programs that address those gaps.

Called contract education, the tailor-made courses are helping workers in the auto parts industry master the lingo of blueprints, flow charts and quality control; introducing a legion of computer-phobic office workers to the ins and outs of desktop computers, and even teaching Japanese carpenters how to build with 2-by-4s.

“It is a major new priority,” said Elaine Gaertner, who promotes contract education for the California Community Colleges. “We’re saying, how can we link training to your business objectives?”

The programs, in which employers contract directly with a school for specialized classes, have surfaced in elite institutions, as well. UCLA’s Anderson School of Management, for instance, has customized seminars for executives, ranging from Johnson & Johnson to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

But the trend is most pronounced in community colleges, which have embraced work force retraining as part of their mission.

At the downtown Los Angeles Trade-Technical College, for example, a recent program trained two dozen Japanese carpenters to build American-style houses for a Los Angeles-based construction company doing business overseas. At Glendale College, 30,000 bank employees have learned how to send e-mail and work a computer spreadsheet. At Pierce College in the San Fernando Valley, physicians from a major Southern California health maintenance organization are about to tackle beginning Spanish. And at El Camino College in Torrance, 80 auto parts workers have taken English as a second language to improve their communications with engineers and supervisors.

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Nearly 60 of California’s 71 community college districts are engaged in contract programs with businesses--with the classes often offered right at the plant or office, aimed mainly at upgrading the skills and knowledge of entry- and mid-level employees.

In 1996-97, those districts garnered almost $60 million worth of contracts, up from $51 million the previous year. About 1,300 employers using the training--32% of the total--were new to contract education, Gaertner said.

The growth in such programs is a response in part to the decline in vocational education courses in high schools, where the movement to restore the basics has refocused educators on academics, said Sharon Tate, dean of academic affairs at Los Angeles Trade-Tech.

“But somebody’s got to be a plumber,” Tate said, citing studies that have shown the greatest job growth is in fields requiring some post-secondary training, but not necessarily a four-year degree.

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The new focus--stimulated by a $20-million allocation in this year’s state budget--reflects the changing nature of the two-year college system, which has been forced by funding and enrollment shortfalls to reach out to new markets. A big plus of the contract classes is that they are self-supporting. And they don’t displace traditional students. In addition, those involved in the programs say they can provide a gateway into mainstream college courses for many people whose education stopped at high school.

But not everyone likes what’s happening.

Some faculty leaders are troubled by the trend in part because the programs hire instructors outside normal channels and don’t offer tenure or other job protections. Others question whether public institutions should subsidize education for the private sector.

“There is deep concern, despite the positives, that this really is privatization undermining the security and stability of the faculty,” said Mona Field, who teaches political science at Glendale College and is president of that school’s faculty guild.

Pat McCallum of the California Community Colleges Faculty Assn. said the growth in contract education worries many in the two-year college system. “To what extent should the public subsidize the profit-motive industry? Is that more important than training nonprofit employees or public employees?”

Some programs, of course, do serve public agencies. At El Camino, one recent contract with the Terminal Island Federal Correctional Institution enrolled about 200 inmates in such courses as business math and communications, all for credit leading to an associate of arts degree.

Advocates also contend that the programs are expanding colleges’ traditional reach, drawing in people for whom the specialized workplace training provides a first brush with any kind of post-secondary education.

“That has been a side effect,” said Larry Paisley, human resources director at Kinetic Parts Manufacturing, a Harbor City company that makes auto brake parts.

Through programs provided by El Camino, some of which were held on the campus, some employees found “they liked the [college] experience and attended other classes,” Paisley said. “That was something we didn’t expect.”

Kinetic Parts is typical of the kind of firm attracted to contract education. The manufacturer has 150 employees, most of whom had no experience in the business and at least half of whom knew too little English to comprehend the technical language needed to perform jobs effectively.

The company could not afford to establish its own training department or hire outside consultants. And it chose not to rely on the haphazard “buddy system,” in which more experienced workers train those who lack the know-how.

So El Camino designed a series of courses for the brake manufacturer, including vocational English as a second language to familiarize workers with terms such as “Gant charts” and “Paredo charts,” types of graphs used to describe production levels and quality control. Some of the courses in blueprint reading and technical math were scheduled for 4 a.m. to meet workers’ needs.

Typically in such cases, the business pays the instructors’ salaries--$35 to $40 an hour--and an administrative fee to the school.

At Los Angeles Trade-Tech, contract programs have focused on helping local manufacturing industries, such as the area’s thriving apparel businesses. But the college also has a large, well-established culinary arts program. Some 450 students chop, saute and bake four days a week starting at 7 a.m. at the huge kitchen on campus. The college is negotiating with a major hotel chain to teach apprentice chefs the art of “plating”--how to make that chicken dijonnaise or salmon en croute look like a work of art.

Some contract programs can lead to a certificate or degree, but most are not offered for college credit.

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In one of its more unusual programs, Trade-Tech contracted with TASA American Homes to teach Japanese carpenters how to build American-style frame houses. So far, the company has put about 25 Japanese carpenters through the five-month training and hopes to send another group later this year, if the Japanese economy improves, said TASA executive president Edward Tixier.

More typical, though, is the office automation training at Glendale College, one of the state’s largest education contractors.

On a recent night, about 17 students from a dozen companies were gathered in a converted bank building in Montrose as an instructor walked them through the operation of the popular Windows software program.

The students are not graded or tested, but are required to complete homework assignments that address actual tasks they may be asked to perform on their jobs. Their employers let them off once a week for a five-hour training session that will run for 16 weeks.

Fewer than half of the students in this class say they have computers at home or have ever touched a mouse. The instructor, Bob Brown, starts gently, assuring them that no prior experience with computers is necessary.

He begins by showing them where to find the power switch on the computers at their desks. Then he moves on to simple do’s and don’ts, such as keeping a loose grip on the mouse.

Among the students is Juan Hurtado, 24, a clerk at Mission Foods in Rancho Cucamonga.

“I’d like to know about computers for the future. My goal,” he said, “is a better job--I wish to be in management.”