
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, September 4, 1993                   TAG: 9309040052
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: GEORGETOWN, DEL.                                LENGTH: Medium

CLINTON URGES JOB TRAINING FOR TEENS

President Clinton took time out Friday from working on health care, worrying about the free trade agreement and reinventing government to promote another administration initiative: training programs for high school students.

Clinton traveled to the Sussex County Airport, where a program called "Operation Skyway" helps high school students train for aviation careers. The trip was meant to highlight a bill introduced last month that would provide federal funding for "school-to-work" programs to prepare non-college-bound youth for the job market.

"I came here today not just to showcase these fine students, but to make the point that every student in America needs the opportunity to be in a program like this," Clinton said.

He said that although the next few months will be focused on initiatives such as government reform, the free trade agreement, health care and a new crime bill, "none of them will work unless we maintain a steadfast determination to educate and train our people at world-class standards."

The Operation Skyway program, Clinton said, "is an example of what America has to do to adapt to change. We can no longer afford to be the only advanced nation in the world without a system for providing this kind of training and education to everybody who doesn't go on and get a four-year college degree."

According to federal figures, 50 percent of high school graduates do not go on to college, and 75 percent do not earn a college degree.

During the presidential campaign, Clinton emphasized the importance of apprenticeship programs for high school students to equip them for high-skill, high-wage jobs.

The School-to-Work Opportunities Act of 1993, introduced last month, would provide money to states and communities to develop and implement training programs and establish national standards for such programs.

To cover costs of the first year of the school-to-work initiative, the administration is expected to get $68 million of the $270 million it has sought to provide grants of about $200,000 to each state to develop school-to-work programs and more sizable grants to four to six states to implement their programs, according to Clinton officials.

Clinton received an airplane model from one of the students in the Skyway program, and said the flight plan for his helicopter trip back to Washington had been mapped by the students.

"Three or four hours from now, if I'm wandering out over the Atlantic somewhere, I'll know I wasn't very persuasive today," Clinton said.

by CNB