Hire Education
Business leaders in Delaware looked at the results of the 1994 survey with disbelief. Every public high school in the state had been asked how many times each year it received requests from employers to review transcripts of job applicants. All but four reported fewer than 10 requests a year. First conclusion? Delaware employers hire thousands of recent graduates and part-time high school students, but few bother to look at records of attendance and punctuality or find out how well applicants have done academically. Second conclusion? If this is happening in Delaware, there is a good chance it's happening in other states.
The impact of the survey was not lost on Delaware educators. It confirmed what many already had suspected. Most employers were ignoring valuable information that helped define an applicant's skills and work habits. The hiring of young people was being done without so much as a glance at their high school "work history." After years of complaints from employers about the quality of the "product" schools were turning out, educators could now argue that the on-the-job weaknesses of many young employees might have been forecast by a glance at transcripts showing failing grades or erratic attendance. This lack of interest on the part of employers, educators speculated, was sending a message to many students that, unless they planned to apply to college, school performance and attendance counted for very little.
Unfortunately, the educators are probably right. For most young Delawareans who enter the work world directly out of high school, a large percentage of whom come from the general academic track, how well they did in high school and how often or promptly they showed up will never be reviewed by any employer--ever. This is true for over half the population between the ages of 16 and 21. The question for most educators is, "Does this lack of accountability contribute toward crippling student motivation to perform?" Most guidance counselors in Delaware believe that it does and that the business community could help reverse this situation if it convinced students that grades and attendance matter and that employers will evaluate high school records before they hire, both for...
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