Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 30, 1994 TAG: 9408020020
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WYTHEVILLE LENGTH: Medium
Similar programs are under way in Franklin and Smyth counties, and other localities are becoming more interested in starting such initiatives.
The Wytheville-Wythe-Bland Chamber of Commerce announced the Workforce Endorsement Program. The program seeks three agreements with businesses:
Businesses will give hiring priority to applicants with high school diplomas when other factors are equal.
They will emphasize the importance of a drug- and alcohol-free workplace to employees and job applicants.
They will require from applicants a transcript of high school courses, grades and attendance.
Wythe County Superintendent Jim Vaught said mailings would go out to employers seeking their participation in the program.
``We want to be able to tell our students that the employers in our community share the same high expectations as teachers,'' he said. ``We no longer can just relegate part of our population to the welfare rolls.''
Bland County Superintendent Morris Witten said business and industry representatives also could visit schools and talk to students about how their schoolwork affects their opportunities in later life.
``This is an opportunity for them to send a very clear message of what they will expect in an employee ... an opportunity to send a message to students while they're in school,'' Vaught said. ``It's never too early to teach that lesson.''
Franklin County started its Workforce Endorsement Program in November. Sandra Ross, who worked on it with Superintendent Leonard Gereau, said it now has 32 businesses with about 10,000 employees signed up.
Ross, now principal at Ferrum Elementary School, was the school system's partnerships supervisor when the program began.
``Lots of areas have called and gotten information,'' she said. When she presented a workshop on it at the Governor's Conference on Education in Richmond this week, she said, about 20 more people sought information about it.
``Once you get it in place, it works really well, and we're hoping it will prevent dropouts,'' Ross said.
Under the program guidelines, life experience still could give an older employee without a diploma an edge over a new graduate. Ross said the workplace has changed a lot in recent years. While working people have been able to keep up with the technology, a recent dropout would not have that advantage in seeking employment, she said.
Smyth County Superintendent Marvin Winters said his county has had the program in place for several years through informal agreements with business and industry to stress the need for a diploma in getting hired.
He will present a more formal Workforce Endorsement Program for consideration by his School Board Aug.8, and said Thursday it is likely to be approved. Like the other programs, it would ask applicants to agree to have their high schools release transcripts of their grades and attendance records to prospective employers.
``The informal program, I think, has worked quite well,'' Winters said. ``We have a large number of our industries that are now requiring high school diplomas.''
That likely is the reason Smyth County has one of the highest enrollments in Southwest Virginia in its adult high school diploma program, he said.
by CNB