Making a Difference in Industry-Education Cooperation. AACE Distinguished Member Series on Career Education.

Overview & Synopsis

Studies of business-education relationships since 1983 have consistently pointed out that they have had little, if any, impact on producing fundamental change in the educational system. During the past year, nationwide surveys of employers show a growing disenchantment by industry in these partnerships. Business-education partnerships cannot be expected to have a significant impact on building a successful school-to-work (STW) system for a number of reasons: a typical STW partnership functions like a project advisory committee; most partnership activities are brief and episodic and involve low levels of investment; employers and educators are not adequately trained to work collaboratively in planning and implementing STW programs; and employer involvement in education is limited to a school or classroom. Local and state STW planners face a formidable problem of identifying incentives for industry to broaden the use of its resources in improving the STW process. The centerpiece is a formal collaborative structure--an industry-education council (IEC)--through which the employment community channels its resources in a coherent manner into the total academic and vocational program directed at four priorities: intensive and continuous staff development, curriculum revision, upgrading instructional materials and equipment, and improving educational management. The IEC model operates with a board of directors representing leaders from industry and public/postsecondary education. (YLB)