NCJ Number
81310
Journal
Federal Probation Volume: 45 Issue: 4 Dated: (December 1981) Pages: 9-12
Date Published
1981
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This paper examines evidence of a discrepancy between basic, on-the-streets needs of young ex-offenders related to finding and keeping jobs and the topics that are usually taught in formal employability courses.
Abstract
The discussion assumes that employability trainers and curriculum writers share beliefs that are incorrect and that result in emphasizing the wrong issues in the classroom. Structured interviews were administered to a sample of parolees of the California Youth Authority (CYA), which instituted a job skills training curriculum for wards of CYA facilities. The purpose of the interviews was to obtain self-reported reasons for successes and failures in finding and keeping jobs. A sample of 145 parolees, similar in terms of demographics to the CYA respondents, were selected randomly from the caseloads of parole offices in four California cities. They were given structured interviews asking for job histories, together with self-reported reasons for job separations, losses, and failed job-seeking efforts. Results refute commonly held myths of parolees by indicating that most were able to obtain jobs but often failed to keep them; this explains the low employment rates among ex-offenders. Thus, skills training courses must include materials that emphasize ways to keep jobs and not just seek them. Appropriate materials should mention how to get along with or tolerate coworkers, how to hang on to an unexciting job long enough for promotions or better opportunities for work to present themselves, how to ue informal peer networks for support or to air gripes, and other tactics. Fourteen references are included.