have to buy new machinery. (Milwaukee Area Technical College, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.) Even the question of simple hand tool replacement may give rise to widely disparate answers in different shops in the same school. Here are responses to a question about replacing fractional wrenches with metric wrenches in the course of normal attrition: I expect a complete turnover in hand tools every 3 or 4 years, and my budget provides for it. (Auto mechanics shop at Blue Hills.) I haven't lost more than three or four wrenches in the last 3 years. (Auto body shop at Blue Hills.) In the face of this endless variety imposed by the availability of funds, local needs, course structures and objectives, and teacher and student attitudes, we secured the equipment lists compiled for over a hundred different occupational curricula by the Division of Occupational Education of the North Carolina Department of Community Colleges. The lists themselves reflect local variations of the sort described above, but, nevertheless, we have studied them and tabulated our results in appendix VII. The modification costs were typically the replacement of gauges, thermometers, and linear scales as small components of larger systems; and the replacement of lead screws and nuts, dials, gears, and other components of relatively costly machines. Replacements and supplements include rulers and other measuring instruments, and small tools, such as fixed wrenches, drill bits, and taps and dies. In only a few shops would the cost of metric conversion approach 5 percent of the total initial equipment cost, and in none is it as high as 10 percent. In this context, it is appropriate to point out that shop machinery is depreciated over periods of 7 to 15 years, although a good deal of older machinery is surely to be found in school shops. The need for modifications, etc., discovered in this Study correspond to a year's depreciation at most: in a planned program of metric conversion that cost would not have to be taken all at once, but could be spread over several years. Conclusion: There are no adequate summary data on the numbers of types of occupational education "shops" or on their equipment holdings. Short of a door-to-door census and inventory, one can make only the roughest estimates of the total cost of conversion in this domain. However, the available fragmentary data indicate that the costs of going metric in occupational education would not be great: In a typical shop, it would amount, at most, to a year's depreciation, and in many curricula the cost would be negligible, i.e., less than a year's attrition and supplies budget. PROJECTIONS FOR OCCUPATIONAL EDUCATION We have discovered that only incomplete and marginally reliable information is available concerning our current programs in occupational education, ticularly for a period of time long enough to cover a proposed metric conversion program. Predictions for total enrollments in 2-year institutions of higher education have been set down by the Carnegie Commission72 under three different projections for the next 30 years. These projections are accompanied by the realistic reservation that they should be reviewed every 5 years. No breakdown is given in these projections for the distribution among transfer, general, and occupational programs. Expected changes in the distribution, the trend toward the enrollment of more older persons (older than 25 years, say), and the availability of other forms of educational experience, such as a community service corps, an overseas volunteer corps, and the external degree program,73 cast doubt upon the gross estimates of the Carnegie Commission's report. A succinct statement was provided by a leader and planner in post-secondary occupational education.74 In general, it appears that about 30 percent of the students enrolled are engaged in occupational, work-oriented, job-entry programs, taking into account national averages and recent trends in 2-year post-secondary institutions. Many institutions and many state systems expect this fraction to increase to 50 percent. The shift will not be at the expense of current programs of general education or transfer, but will come about as new funds and new building programs emphasize the occupational curricula of the programs of 2-year colleges in order to bring their offerings into greater accord with perceived national needs and students' desires. An implication for metric conversion projections is to be found here: It is generally expected that new occupational programs are more likely to be based in the behavioral sciences and health sciences, while existing programs, which are based more in the physical sciences and are consequently more measurement-oriented, will expand, but at a slower rate than the average. A small conference of occupational educators was called with the (initial) intention of securing their views on the ways in which occupational education might be expected to develop in the next two decades, especially with regard to any interaction with metric conversion. The conference did not, in fact, spend much time on these forecasts. It seemed clear that the improvement of existing programs and the laying of shorter-range plans were of more concern, and that the problems of metric conversion in occupational education lie mainly elsewhere. However, information developed at that meeting has been used throughout the body of this Report. A new approach to this issue may lie in the establishment in the U.S. Office of Education of a National Career Center for the Education Pro 72 The Open-Door Colleges, the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education, McGraw-Hill Book Company (1970), p. 33 ff. The three projections all assume, state by state, the continuation of recent trends in the fraction of high school graduates going on to post-secondary study. One projection assumes the continuation of the national average of 29 percent of undergraduates in 2-year colleges; the second assumes that 60 percent of future growth will be in 2-year colleges; and the third assumes that in each state the growth of 2-year colleges will follow the trend of recent years. 73 "External Degree A Hope For Millions," New York Times, 11 January 1971, p. 50. 74 John Grede, City Colleges of Chicago, (formerly of University of Michigan). fessions.75 In the face of the first numerical surplus of teachers in 40 years, this Center will examine the nature of some of our outstanding educational problems which we cannot expect to solve by sheer numbers of otherwise undirected teachers. Among its concerns, this new Center may throw some light upon needs for teachers in occupational education and, by implication, upon the nature of the occupational education programs which are likely to be needed and established in the immediate and near future. It might, in time, become the source of the type of detailed projections which we could have used in this Study. There is a deep-seated contradiction - some would say schizophrenia - in occupational education between the mobility of the individual in our country and local responsibility for occupational education (and indeed for all education) in response to locally identified needs for trained workers. A recent study of the interaction between industry and occupational education deals almost exclusively with the mechanisms for securing local industrial encouragement and moral support for new programs to be financed by local, state, and federal funds.76 While there are passages which refer to the need for local surveys to determine demands for trained people, there appears to be little quantitative consideration to national needs, except for the encouragement by national trade associations of programs to recruit young people into their trades (which one might have expected in the manpower shortages of the early 1960's). It seems likely that similar interactions may have to be developed between local governmental agencies and school authorities for the programs of service to social and health needs which are expected to develop in the next decade or two. In a somewhat different vein, occupational educators are concerned about getting aspects of occupational education into the elementary schools. The white-collar blue-collar distinction so strongly projected in elementary education and in advertising and television programming creates a set of mind which directs secondary and post-secondary students into academic studies to the detriment of perceived national needs for graduates of occupational education curricula. (The last popular TV program with a worker for the hero, or anti-hero, was "Car 54," which expired in 1963. The plumber and electric lineman are always presented as friendly servants, while Daddy wears a suit to work and carries a briefcase.) In reaction, organized occupational education seeks, to some extent, to create new images of different kinds of careers as alternatives to white-collar careers based upon or following an academic education, and to project the images into education for the youngest children. An explicit suggestion was made at a recent meeting on vocational education that "occupational preparation specialists" might be attached to the schools to see to it that the implications of education for occupation were attended to in all classes and at all levels and that all students were introduced to work skills, were given information about all 75 Don Davies, "The teacher numbers game," American Education (October 1970). 76 Samuel M. Burt, Industry and Vocational-Technical Education, McGraw-Hill Book Com kinds of jobs, and some understanding of the world of work and careers. Education of this sort- and especially a knowledge of the world of work - should begin in the early grades of elementary school and be continued through high school and beyond."7 Conclusion: There are essentially no data upon which reliable projections can be made for occupational education. This is true at every level of decision-making, whether it be local, state, regional or national. A commitment to set up any new curriculum is fraught with danger, for a sizable investment in equipment, space, and staff must be made before a program can be offered; and if students don't enroll in it, then administrative embarrassment can be acute.78 D. Adult Education and Workers on the Job ADULT EDUCATION To many Americans the words 'adult education' mean basket weaving or Japanese ikebana. To others the words mean high school completion or learning to read or write on a 5th grade level. All are accurate. Adult education in the United States is an umbrella term for voluntary, usually part-time programs, the fourth force in education, that level of nonacademic, often informal education beyond elementary, secondary, and university education.79 A detailed classification of "continuing" education programs has been given in an extensive study of the subject: 80 I. Traditional Programs A. Adult Basic Education B. High School Level and Equivalency Education C. Adult Citizenship Education D. Occupational Training E. Avocational Education II. Staff Training and Career Development for Government Personnel A. General Needs B. New Employees C. Skill Updating and Management Training for Middle-Level 77 E. G. Mesthene, Program on Technology and Society, Harvard University (report on a meeting on vocational education, 31 October 1968, p. 2). 78 William M. Staerkel, “When Enrollments Give Technical Education Deans Nightmares," Technical Education, (May/June 1970) p. 11. 79 “Adult Education and the Metric System,” Richard W. Cortright, for the Adult Education Service of the National Education Association, presented at the Education Conference. 80 "Continuing Education," Melvin R. Levin and Joseph S. Slavet, D. C. Heath and Company, Lexington, Mass. (1970), p. 43. Part II of this classification is a reflection in continuing education of the trend in occupational education to train people for government service, a major D. The Federal In-Service Training Program: A Model for the State? III. Citizen-Client Education A. Consumer Education B. Driver Safety Education C. Environmental Education It is evident that many of the traditional programs in this classification fall under other sectors of this Study and need not be discussed separately. However, one must be aware that the needs of adult learners are different from those of children and that the adult learner will not respond to approaches used for children. Teaching methods and materials must be appropriate for adult education.81 In formulating adult instruction in the traditional programs, one must explicitly take into account the fact that different individuals will start at different places and that each is able to proceed at his own rate; and in particular, that they may have bits and pieces of knowledge for which adult education must fill in the gaps, and, on occasion, contradict what has been learned in the past. Manpower training programs have carefully considered these teaching problems.82 The THINK METRIC campaign might fall under part III, Citizen-Client Education, of the classification given above, although one would hope it might be more effective than driver-safety education has been, recognizing of course that there is an element of coercion and the learning task is easier in changing one's way of buying butter to "Net Mass - 100 grams" than in learning to fasten the seat belt provided in one's new automobile. THE TRAINING OF WORKERS ON THE JOB We have not made any extensive study of the problems of providing training for workers already on the job. Other components of the U.S. Metric Study have been assigned the primary responsibility for this sector: 83 Component 2: the special cost analyses volunteered by over 150 manufacturing firms include personnel education among the cost factors estimated; Component 12: the analysis of the effects on labor, conducted in cooperation with organized labor, was designed to focus on workerowned tools and on employee education and retraining. Nonetheless, we were able to secure the views of one large industry regarding the magnitude of the on-the-job training effort they would need, and 81 As an example, see Hip Reader, Cecelia Pollack and Patrick R. Love, Book-Lab, Inc., Brooklyn, N. Y. (1968). 82 “Essentials for Planned Metrication in Manpower Training Programs for Adults," Donna M. Seay, a paper presented for the New and Related Services Division of the American Vocational Association, at the Education Conference. 83 U.S. Metric Study Report, International Standards, National Bureau of Standards Publica |