Communication between businesses and schools is essential for work-related education. January 1998's column focused on sites from the education side of the partnership. This issue takes on business -- several national business organizations and associations active in educational improvement and reform offer informative sites worthy of an educator's perusal.
Business Coalition for Educational Reform
www.bcer.org --
BCER is a coalition of 13 business groups, including the
National Alliance of Business (see below) and the U.S. Chamber of
Commerce. Eleven of the partner organizations have their own Web sites,
all of which are linked from the BCER site. A coalitions page
(
www.bcer.org/coalition/coalition.htm) links to information about 54
local partnerships between schools and businesses. The site also has
online versions of the monthly BCER Update newsletter, which
highlights new publications and profiles coalition activities and
initiatives.
The Web sites of these BCER partners are also of interest:
National Alliance of Business
www.nab.com --
BCER is managed by NAB, whose site has a search feature and sections on workplace
learning, school-to-work, welfare-to-work, workforce re-entry and legislation.
American Council on Education
www.acenet.edu/programs/bhef/ --
The Business--Higher Education Forum of the ACE has
information on its Developing Tomorrow's Work Force initiative as well
as links to relevant publications and a membership directory.
Committee for Economic Development
www.ced.org/docs/improvin.htm --
A CED subcommittee's study, "The Employer's Role in Linking School and Work,"
is available on the site. Techniques reported on this study last month in
"Keeping Up."
Council on Competitiveness
www.compete.org --
The Council on Competitiveness is a nonpartisan forum of 140
corporate chief executives, university presidents and labor leaders
working to set a national action agenda to strengthen U.S.
competitiveness. The council's site features a summary of its recent
report, "Winning the Skills Race."
National Employer Leadership Council
www.nelc.org --
NELC (not a BCER partner) is a coalition of CEOs of private sector companies.
Its mission is to enhance the quality of the nation's workforce and to
improve the productivity and competitiveness of American businesses
through work-based learning opportunities for all students. The site has
information about member company programs and back issues of NELC's
newsletter, Employer Connections. Also online is a recent report,
"NELC Employer Participation Model: What, How, Where and Who of STW for
Businesses" (www.nelc.org/model-s.html).
This "NET Gain" was compiled by David Carlson, Damaris Moore and Peter Seidman (NCRVE, University of California at Berkeley). An online version of "NET Gain" columns is available on the NCRVE World Wide Web server (http://ncrve.berkeley.edu/NetGain/). Readers are encouraged to let the authors know about any changes in the resources listed, as well as about others they find useful.
David Carlson: 800-(old phone deleted);
Peter Seidman: 800-(old phone deleted);