Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - October 15, 1985, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free press october Page f school workplace focus by mans Mueller special to the free press less than 20 years vocational education was generally regarded As a solution for those students who could not fulfil Basic academic sex the prevailing attitude was that the vocational students after All were not Bright enough to go on to would at least learn something of a Trade in the vocational in All a vocational Industrial education was regarded As second when the Bottom fell out of the jobs particularly for unskilled Young people started taking a second look at vocation a Industrial those same vocational students whom Many in the school system had written off As were suddenly those with while the allegedly brighter group which had gone on to found that their Bas left them educated but a employ the school system itself came under tremendous pressure to Reth Ink vocational Industrial concurrent with a skyrocketing unemployment rate for Young Industry in Canada was faced with a dearth of skilled the obvious solution was to reshape vocational removing the stigma traditionally associated with it and pro Viding the Money needed to offer a Quality vocational this meant big changes in vocational there was suddenly Money for new state of the Art materials and Quali fied teachers who were not Only but also educators in the fullest sense of the it also meant a new emphasis in theoretical research in vocational education and the introduction of several new models and approaches to Industrial Manitoba was in the Vanguard of All these new developments and was among the first provinces to develop alternatives to the traditional vocational education it was simply a matter of time until efforts were made to integrate vocational education into the work in these efforts seem to be not Only but also eminently after the concept of learning by doing is a proven teaching a student in a workplace learns firsthand the Rigours of the Job there is a better Chance for full employment in the place of training after the completion of the educational local school already financially could save tremendous amounts of Money in shop construction and machinery costs by placing their students in rather than following the established Model of the classroom while individual provinces in individual school All developed their own work experience they retained a Basic some programs placed students in a workplace for five or six weeks a school semes Ter for practical other programs were limited to a halfday a school but All were based on the concept that vocational Educa Tion must be viewed As part of the comprehensive school Currick in real this meant that the classroom while obviously focusing on Trade theory and Handon also included the Core Aca Demic subjects such As sciences and social which Combine to develop a employable High school but a new alarming trend is now emerging in vocational education in this province which threatens to re place the comprehensive nature of the vocational Industrial education program with a skill devel Ozment while work experience education puts equal stress on the work experience and the cooperative vocational educational pro Gram an offshoot of work now offers students a Grade 12 diploma for attending classes one Day a week for the entire school the other four Days per week Are spent in a workplace with minimal direct school while the solitary Day in the classroom focuses exclusively on Trade no where in the curriculum is there any provision for mathematics or any other academic or extracurricular this program makes a mockery of the comprehensive education curriculum and raises a whole Seres of moral and education Al in the first As education minister Maureen Hemphill stated in May of this Manitoba school system int a Job training factory for Federal employment projections lists or private sector but that seems to be exactly the purpose of this what else can be the intent of a program which pulls students out of the school for 80 per cent of their classroom time and turns them Over to private sector employers Many of these students Are being used As a source of cheap while students Are supposed to be learning various aspects of their chosen they Are extremely vulnerable to unscrupulous employers who May relegate them to menial tasks for the entire it is impossible for school authorities to Monitor the Job Sites to see that students Are in fact when the program guidelines stipulate that each Job site must be visited Only once every two weeks by a cooperating vocational there is also the question of the morality of paying students per hour As this program does for their input in the but two questions override All one is the question of super vision and safety of the students in the workplace the second is that of education authorities abdicating their sacred Trust of educating our Young people in favor of the ups and Downs of the this junes tragic death of a Stu Dent enrolled in a work experience program in Winnipeg is a hideous warning of the dangers inherent in an improperly supervised program of this Industrial accidents and deaths Are an horrendous fact of life in the it is the younger and inexperienced worker who is if programs such As the Crep Are More and More Youn Ger people will be in the Industrial workplace and will be even More vulnerable to serious injury or even our educational authorities must pay attention to the fact that the death of one student is one death too and must seriously Veevalu work experience must be tied into the ate their Reliance on placing Stu dents at risk in potentially Hazard Ous situations without the Benefit of teacher no no matter How Well intentioned or can be expected to disrupt his production schedule to the degree necessary to provide the Type of supervision required by that Type of supervision can Only be provided by vocational teachers who understand and work in two educational domains the or understanding the Why and How and the or doing it Over and Over until it is done the school setting provides teach ers with the Opportunity to fully develop both of these aspects of education the work site and Given the competitive nature of Industry in our nor should but perhaps most important of All is the question How does the Aliena Tion of the student from the school affect his total development a school is More than a training ground for be they vocational or academic a school offers Young people a whole Range of activities and outlets that no work site can it provides our Young people Access to trained important and allows them to develop in a whole Range of extracurricular such As drama and so so important to All of us in later removing vocational students from this under the Guise of pro Viding them with Job once again has taken these students full Circle in ghetto izes vocational As was the Case 20 years the intangible benefits of a High school the leadership and social skill once again is the exclusive Purview of the academic ally there is an alternative to this frightening and that is recognition of vocational education As an integral part of a comprehensive school a curriculum which provides students with the essentials of academic development As Well As training in direct Jobre lated this that the purse strings have to be and funds released to allow our schools to obtain the necessary machinery and equipment needed to introduce students to state theart Industrial it also neans a new cooperation Between employ ers and educators that will allow students in the vocational Industrial programs Safe and supervised a Cess to the workplace without Dimin Ishing the equally important school integration and there is a place for work experience but we cannot look to these programs As a substitute for a Well rounded education provided by competent and skilled professionals in our school our educational and the education profession would be Well advised to rethink their optimistic belief in the direction we Are taking viewing total integration in the workplace As a Panacea cure for the employment and educational problems facing the current Genera Tion of Getty vows to fight for Albertas rights Edmonton Donald Ross Albertas Premier Esig was born in in and Learned to throw a football at the University of West Ern Ontario in these facts seen to Delight some reporters from Central who assume that is a turncoat or sellout be cause he champions Albertas interests As hotly As Peter Lough eed Ever his when he takes Over Lougheed Job within two Are to counter Quebec subsidies of and fight Ontario demand for lower Natu ral Gas As the centralist scribes fail to understand a profound Western phenomenon the Al most religious conversion that sweeps Over Many people who move from East to Getty is a textbook he came to Edmonton in the mid50s to play quarterback for the Eski led the team to a Grey and quickly fell in love with Al but his conversion was More than a lust for glory or Mountain he had grown up assuming that he was a firs class but Learned the hard Way that he lost political Power when he moved to a Getty got by when he was first elected to the Legisla Ture As a tory he was As determined As Lougheed to fight Central As Energy minister from 1975 he lived through some of the roughest fights with Ottawa Over Oil pricing and the distribution of Albertas new these struggles gave him a profound distrust of a Central Power that allowed Ottawa to enact some of the most unfair measures Ever imposed on one Getty became an Al Bertan to his his feelings showed clearly in his speech to leadership delegates last when he said with High emotion i will not soon forget the freezing of our Oil and Gas prices in the Price of no other resource was i will not soon forget the Oil Export tax imposed unilaterally in no other Export was so i will never forget the nation Al Energy program of 1980 the crushing of our the de railing of our no other province Ever suffered such Dis Getty said he loves Canada and never enjoyed the but Don braid in Alberta the Only time we will fight is when we Are treated in and when we Are treated we will always and we will fight with that was a Clear warning to the Federal should they again lean too far toward Quebec and Ontario to win like the two losing Julian Koziak and Ron Getty made a Strong pitch to Albertas troubled Farmers and All agreed that a Large part of the problem is Quebec govern ment subsidies As Getty Rob albertan of their Nat ural Quebec is the Only province that refuses to join a re meat stabilization plan that would equalize subsidies across the Gettys first act As he will be to create a powerful agricultural committee to act on farm problems by this Means a Quick entry into the subsidy sweepstakes through lower Energy better crop Low Cost and reduction of Many other farm input to fund this Getty plans to use excess income now pouring into the heritage fund possibly billion a a sum no province could match without As for Ontario recent demand for lower natural Gas and the provinces threat to import Gas As an Getty vows hell never agree to any thing that hurts Alberta pro albertan see Ontario de Mand As since much of the Gas Price in Ontario is due to transport costs and pro fits earned by Ontario Dis Tribu yet the Ontario while opposing free now threaten to buy from foreigners without offering to lower tariffs on their own manufactured Long experience with such arrogance has purged Getty of any sympathy for the Power brokers in Central when pro hell fight them As hard As Lougheed far from being a Hes just another transplanted easterner who got mad when he Learned How the game really works in this Don braid is the Edmonton journals political Getty and wife Margaret the Zeal of a City and provincial workers find common cause civil servants who work for the govern ment with its main offices on Broadway Are learning they have soul Brothers at the other governments Headquarters on main at City the air has been filled with self righteous statements about excessive salaries for pointless jobs and Hasty in creases of pay for others in order to keep them from escaping to More lucrative positions the decision by the majority of Winnipeg councillors to Grant a Large increase to one group of employees and a possible freeze of salaries layoffs for others had an allot familiar one might be tempted to believe they were inspired by recent provincial but the inspiration actually came from a study by a management consulting because of its the elected officials decided to streamline operations and the first step involved 67 management employees who Are not covered by a Union of that 34 top people were voted an average increase of per cent phased in Over three along with any costo living increases the City May give another 11 received Only the cos Tolliv ing while 22 were facing a freeze during the same according to the in com Parison to other cities and private was overpaying some of its Middle level employees and under paying those at the since the latter group was regarded As More essential to the cites councillors decided to take appropriate and speedy that decision did not indicate a Lack of concern about the potential loss and unhappiness of explained Deputy mayor Jim it was simply a matter of fairness was also the rationale for the under the dome Arlene Billinkoff planned implementation of yet another phase of the which indicated the City is overpaying about 250 Junior the problem was attributed to the Duplica Tion of roles when the various municipalities were amalgamated in 1972 to form the new City of because time and attrition had not produced a the mayor was determined to take More direct in this councillors can not act As the employees in question Are Union members and Bill Norrie admitted that formal negotiations May take Union officials after settling for three percent increases for 1984 and they were not pleased about the larger increases for a select As a future negotiations would be at the provincial threats have not been As but similar discontent is three years few Felt sorry for the Manitoba government employees Asso which acquired an enviable contract calling for a increase Over 24 even when the government began to worry about its the Union got a six month Extension of the existing contract with minimal increases and a no Layoff the Good times ended shortly thereafter because in the government decided that wage negotiations must play a crucial role resolving the provinces Man Ciar prob we must exercise every possible Effort to provide the most cos effective Public said finance minister Vic while that sounded the facts proved As Mega president Gary doer the government which was sup posed to be so concerned about serving the was considering layoffs in jobs which actually dealt with the while increasing the image building the Union signed a three year contract with no immedi ate wage increases in the first three per cent in the second and an increase based on the costo living and consumer Price Index formula in the third it did provide Job Security and Holiday initially both sides regarded the settlement to be but when the spending estimates indicated a increase in salaries for the executive doer was such a hike for a political office set an extremely bad example in times of he it was totally cynicism increased last july when it was revealed that 166 civil service some of whom were earning More than 000 a would receive increases of seven and per More than twice the in crease for average the reason which has since been echoed by City was that the salary increases for bureaucrats outside the bargaining units had lagged far behind those within the Union and there was a need to Correct that argument May have sounded but the recent revelation of a 62percent increase in the number of top level bureaucrats and the promotion of a number of those people with pay increases As High As per was too much for the the creation of More management positions at the same time the government was reducing the number of those who actually delivered the services flew in the face of the alleged policy of charged labor minister Al Mackling insisting that the government required senior staff to implement its he saw nothing devious about such promotions and wage City councillors also saw nothing wrong with the hefty increases for a select few and reduction of but the unions have warned about Tough negotiations in the fur the provincial politicians should take heed of that warning because if they continue on the present there Are Likely to be wage Battles in their own front doonesbury by Garry Trudeau to you pan up to gum Istatt you got gum fios sino hot ;