Karen H. Jones

Perceptions of Urban Trade and Industrial Students in the South-eastern USA: School and Career-Related Issues.

Abstract Technological change and increased international competition continue to create shortages of workers in the USA who are ready to meet the demands of a high-performance workplace. Demographic trends suggest that in the next 20 years employers will depend on a workforce drawn from urban communities. However, youth exiting schools in urban districts are a segment of the American population often considered ill-prepared to meet the demands of todays workforce. Urban students are often described as potential high school drop-outs or non-college bound and have experienced employment difficulties. Since urban youth are at-risk for unemployment after completing high school, research is needed to establish an empirical basis for instructional design and strategies. Perceptions of urban students enrolled in trade and industrial education courses in a large urban city in the south-eastern USA were examined to explore work and career-related issues. Findings suggest students form perceptions toward work and...