Community Education Center Association

Preparing Students for Success

Are We Preparing Our Students for the Workforce?

Edited from U.S. Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration
http://wdr.doleta.gov/SCANS/

In 1990, the Secretary of Labor appointed a commission to determine the skills our young people need to succeed in the world of work. The commission's fundamental purpose was to encourage a high-performance economy characterized by high-skill, high-wage employment. Although the commission completed its work in 1992, its findings and recommendations continue to be a valuable source of information for individuals and organizations involved in education and workforce development.

There is no generally accepted statement of the skills required to succeed at a career in the United States. The Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS) set out to formulate a new framework for workplace skills based on three components: The functional skills that describe what people actually do at work; the enabling skills, that is, the specific knowledge and procedures developed through the traditional teaching and learning activities of schools; and the scenario, a communication device to demonstrate the way in which work integrates these skills into a productive outcome.

A high-performance workplace requires workers who have a solid foundation in the basic literacy and computational skills, the thinking skills, and in the personal qualities that make workers dedicated and trustworthy. High-performance workplaces also require competencies: the ability to manage resources, to work amicably and productively with others, to acquire and use information, to master complex systems, and to work with a variety of technologies.

Professor Gregory Lee, a Geography instructor at Pasadena City College, has adapted a checklist for his Physical Geography students entitled Personal Skills Inventory Using SCANS. His students use the SCANS list to set their educational goals. He says: "Think of the items on the SCANS list as tools in your tool box. As a worker, you will be better able to find work if you have more tools in your tool box. With a large array of tools you will be better prepared for whatever jobs may become available. If you master the process of learning you will be able to acquire new knowledge and skills to increase your tool box or adapt your tool box existing tools to suit the job." The following checklist is used by Professor Lee’s students as they prepare for each geography field trip or classroom activity (1):

The S.C.A.N.S. Self-Assessment

The S.C.A.N.S. Self-Assessment(U.S. Dept. of Labor, Secretary’s Commission on Acquiring Necessary Skills)SEP-G7a: General Systems

Name: ___________________________________________ Date:_______________________

Instructions: Before starting the trip, please take some time to do this SCANS self-assessment. Read every item on each list. Be honest with yourself. If you can do any item so well that you know someone would pay you to do it, put a check mark in the “Before” column.
After completing the trip, please take some time to do this SCANS self-assessment one more time. Read and mark only the items that you feel you learned or improved because of this trip. Put a check mark in the “After” column.

Foundation Skills

A. Reading
1. Locate written information.
2. Understand information.
3. Interpret information.

B. Writing
1. Communicate thought in writing.
2. Communicate idea in writing.
3. Communicate information in writing.
4. Create a letter.
5. Create directions.
6. Create a manual.
7. Create a report.
8. Create a graph.
9. Create a flow chart.

C. Arithmetic/Mathematics
1. Perform basic computations.
2. Approach a practical problem.
3. Choose the appropriate mathematical technique.

D. Listening
1. Receive a verbal message/cue.
2. Attend to verbal message/cue.
3. Interpret a verbal message/cue.
4. Respond to a verbal message/cue.
E. Speaking
1. Organize ideas.
2. Communicate orally.



Thinking Skills

A. Creative Thinking
1. Locate written information.

B. Decision Making
1. Specify goals and constraints.
2. Generate alternatives.
3. Consider risks.
4. Evaluate alternatives.

C. Problem Solving
1. Recognizing problems.
2. Implement a plan of action.

D. Seeing Things in the Mind's Eye

1. Mentally organize symbols, pictures, graphs, objects, other information.
2. Mentally process symbols, pictures, graphs, objects, other information.
E. Knowing How to Learn
1. Use rules, principles and underlying relationships between two or more objects.
2. Apply rules, principles when solving a problem.

Personal Skills

A. Responsibility
1. Exert a high level of effort.
2. Persevere toward goal attainment.
B. Self-Esteem Before After
1. Believe in own self-worth.
2. Maintain positive view of self.
C. Sociability
1. Demonstrate understanding.
2. Demonstrate friendliness.
3. Demonstrate adaptability.
4. Demonstrate empathy.
5. Demonstrate politeness in group settings.

D. Self-Management
1. Assess self accurately.
2. Set personal goals.
3. Monitor progress.
4. Exhibit self-control.

E. Integrity/Honesty
1. Choose ethical course of action.



Work Place Competencies

A. Resources
1. Know how to allocate time.
2. Know how to allocate money.
3. Know how to allocate materials.
4. Know how to allocate space.
5. Know how to allocate staff.

B. Interpersonal Skills
1. Work on a team.
2. Teach others.
3. Serve customers/others.
4. Lead
5. Negotiate.
6. Work with people from culturally diverse backgrounds.

C. Information
1. Acquire data.
2. Evaluate data.
3. Organize/maintain files.
4. Interpret information.
5. Communicate information.
6. Use a computer to process data/information.

D. Systems
1. Understand social, organizational, technological systems.
2. Monitor and correct performance.
3. Design and improve systems.

E. Technology
1. Select equipment and tools.
2. Apply technology to the task.
3. Maintain and troubleshoot equipment.





(1) Reprinted with permission of Professor Gregory Lee

Links

U.S. Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration