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The Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS) was asked to examine the demands of the workplace and whether our young people are capable of meeting those demands.
Specifically, the Commission was directed to advise the Secretary on the level of skills required to enter employment. In carrying out this charge, the Commission was asked to:
* Define the skills needed for employment;
* Propose acceptable levels of proficiency;
* Suggest effective ways to assess proficiency; and
* Develop a dissemination strategy for the nation's schools, businesses, and homes.
This report results from our discussions and meetings with business owners, public employers, unions, and workers and super visors in shops, plants, and stores. It builds on the work of six special panels we established to examine all manner of jobs from manufacturing to government employment. We also commissioned researchers to conduct lengthy interviews with workers in a wide range of jobs.
The message to us was universal: good jobs will increasingly depend on people who can put knowledge to work. What we found was disturbing: more than half our young people leave school without the knowledge or foundation required to find ad hold a good job. These young people will pay a very high price. They face the bleak prospects of dead-end work interrupted only by periods of unemployment.
Two conditions that arose in the last quarter of the 20th Century have changed the terms for our young people's entry into the world of work: the globalization of commerce and industry ad the explosive growth of technology on the job. These developments have barely been reflected in how we prepare young people for work or in how many of our workplaces are organized. Schools need to do a better job and so do employers. Students and workers must work smarter. Unless they do, neither our schools, our students, nor our businesses can prosper.
SCANS research verifies that what we call workplace know-how defines effective job performance today. This know-how has two elements: competencies and a foundation. This report identifies five competencies (Table 1) and a three-part foundation of skills and personal qualities that lie at the heart of job-performance (Table 2). (Tables 1 and 2 omitted) These eight requirements are essential preparation for all...