§ 16-80-2 Findings. – The general assembly has found and declares that:
(1) Three-fourths (3/4) of adults in the Rhode Islandworkforce lack a baccalaureate degree, and many do not possess the academic andentry-level occupational skills necessary to succeed in the changing workplace;
(2) Twenty-eight percent (28%) of youths, ages sixteen (16)to twenty-four (24) in Rhode Island, especially disadvantaged students,students of diverse racial, ethnic and cultural backgrounds, and students withdisabilities, do not complete high school;
(3) Unemployment among youths, ages sixteen (16) to nineteen(19) in Rhode Island averaged eighteen and six-tenths percent (18.6%) in 1994,an intolerably high percentage, and earnings of high school graduates have beendeclining in relationship to earnings of individuals with post-secondarydegrees;
(4) The workplace in the United States and especially inRhode Island is changing in response to heightened international competitionand new technologies, and these forces, which are ultimately beneficial to thenation, are shrinking the demand for and undermining the earning power ofunskilled labor;
(5) Rhode Island lacks a comprehensive and coherent system tohelp its youth acquire the knowledge, skills, abilities, and information aboutand access to the labor market necessary to make an effective transition fromschool to career-oriented work or to further education and training;
(6) Students in Rhode Island can achieve higher academic andoccupational standards, and many learn better and retain more when the studentslearn in context rather than in the abstract;
(7) While many students in Rhode Island have part-time jobs,there is infrequent linkage between:
(i) These jobs, and
(ii) The career planning or exploration or the school-basedlearning of students;
(8) The work-based learning approach, which is modeled afterthe time-honored apprenticeship concept, integrates theoretical instructionwith structured on-the-job training, and this approach, combined withschool-based learning, can be very effective in engaging student interest,enhancing skill acquisition, developing positive work attitudes, and preparingyouths for high skill, high wage careers;
(9) Federal resources currently fund a series of categorical,work-related education and training programs, many of which serve disadvantagedyouths, that are not administered as a coherent whole; and
(10) In 1990, approximately sixteen thousand seven hundredforty-one (16,741) individuals in Rhode Island, ages sixteen (16) throughtwenty-four (24), had not completed high school and were not currently enrolledin school, a population representing approximately twenty-eight percent (28%)of all individuals in this age group which indicates that these young personsare particularly unprepared for the demands of the twenty-first century.
§ 16-80-2 Findings. – The general assembly has found and declares that:
(1) Three-fourths (3/4) of adults in the Rhode Islandworkforce lack a baccalaureate degree, and many do not possess the academic andentry-level occupational skills necessary to succeed in the changing workplace;
(2) Twenty-eight percent (28%) of youths, ages sixteen (16)to twenty-four (24) in Rhode Island, especially disadvantaged students,students of diverse racial, ethnic and cultural backgrounds, and students withdisabilities, do not complete high school;
(3) Unemployment among youths, ages sixteen (16) to nineteen(19) in Rhode Island averaged eighteen and six-tenths percent (18.6%) in 1994,an intolerably high percentage, and earnings of high school graduates have beendeclining in relationship to earnings of individuals with post-secondarydegrees;
(4) The workplace in the United States and especially inRhode Island is changing in response to heightened international competitionand new technologies, and these forces, which are ultimately beneficial to thenation, are shrinking the demand for and undermining the earning power ofunskilled labor;
(5) Rhode Island lacks a comprehensive and coherent system tohelp its youth acquire the knowledge, skills, abilities, and information aboutand access to the labor market necessary to make an effective transition fromschool to career-oriented work or to further education and training;
(6) Students in Rhode Island can achieve higher academic andoccupational standards, and many learn better and retain more when the studentslearn in context rather than in the abstract;
(7) While many students in Rhode Island have part-time jobs,there is infrequent linkage between:
(i) These jobs, and
(ii) The career planning or exploration or the school-basedlearning of students;
(8) The work-based learning approach, which is modeled afterthe time-honored apprenticeship concept, integrates theoretical instructionwith structured on-the-job training, and this approach, combined withschool-based learning, can be very effective in engaging student interest,enhancing skill acquisition, developing positive work attitudes, and preparingyouths for high skill, high wage careers;
(9) Federal resources currently fund a series of categorical,work-related education and training programs, many of which serve disadvantagedyouths, that are not administered as a coherent whole; and
(10) In 1990, approximately sixteen thousand seven hundredforty-one (16,741) individuals in Rhode Island, ages sixteen (16) throughtwenty-four (24), had not completed high school and were not currently enrolledin school, a population representing approximately twenty-eight percent (28%)of all individuals in this age group which indicates that these young personsare particularly unprepared for the demands of the twenty-first century.
§ 16-80-2 Findings. – The general assembly has found and declares that:
(1) Three-fourths (3/4) of adults in the Rhode Islandworkforce lack a baccalaureate degree, and many do not possess the academic andentry-level occupational skills necessary to succeed in the changing workplace;
(2) Twenty-eight percent (28%) of youths, ages sixteen (16)to twenty-four (24) in Rhode Island, especially disadvantaged students,students of diverse racial, ethnic and cultural backgrounds, and students withdisabilities, do not complete high school;
(3) Unemployment among youths, ages sixteen (16) to nineteen(19) in Rhode Island averaged eighteen and six-tenths percent (18.6%) in 1994,an intolerably high percentage, and earnings of high school graduates have beendeclining in relationship to earnings of individuals with post-secondarydegrees;
(4) The workplace in the United States and especially inRhode Island is changing in response to heightened international competitionand new technologies, and these forces, which are ultimately beneficial to thenation, are shrinking the demand for and undermining the earning power ofunskilled labor;
(5) Rhode Island lacks a comprehensive and coherent system tohelp its youth acquire the knowledge, skills, abilities, and information aboutand access to the labor market necessary to make an effective transition fromschool to career-oriented work or to further education and training;
(6) Students in Rhode Island can achieve higher academic andoccupational standards, and many learn better and retain more when the studentslearn in context rather than in the abstract;
(7) While many students in Rhode Island have part-time jobs,there is infrequent linkage between:
(i) These jobs, and
(ii) The career planning or exploration or the school-basedlearning of students;
(8) The work-based learning approach, which is modeled afterthe time-honored apprenticeship concept, integrates theoretical instructionwith structured on-the-job training, and this approach, combined withschool-based learning, can be very effective in engaging student interest,enhancing skill acquisition, developing positive work attitudes, and preparingyouths for high skill, high wage careers;
(9) Federal resources currently fund a series of categorical,work-related education and training programs, many of which serve disadvantagedyouths, that are not administered as a coherent whole; and
(10) In 1990, approximately sixteen thousand seven hundredforty-one (16,741) individuals in Rhode Island, ages sixteen (16) throughtwenty-four (24), had not completed high school and were not currently enrolledin school, a population representing approximately twenty-eight percent (28%)of all individuals in this age group which indicates that these young personsare particularly unprepared for the demands of the twenty-first century.
