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

DATE: FRIDAY, October 21, 1994                   TAG: 9410210028
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: MELISSA DeVAUGHN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium

SCHOOLS SEEK BUSINESSES' SUPPORT IN HIRING THEIR GRADUATES

At a kick-off breakfast Thursday, Instructional Supervisor Richard Ballengee urged area business owners to give Montgomery County students a shot at employment, by signing a work force endorsement agreement with the schools.

"If you hire our graduates and they're not what you hoped they'd be, we're willing to be held accountable," Ballengee said. "We'll continually try to adjust and make changes to produce better graduates."

As part of the agreement, employers will be supplied with an employment transcript showing a student's attendance record, extracurricular activities and class schedules. If the student is hired, employers can then feed information back to the schools about the academic strengths or weaknesses they've found in that employee.

"I think it will be an incentive to motivate the students and it will provide you, the employers, with a viable and reliable work force right in this community," Ballengee said.

He added that the program should also help reduce the county dropout rate, which hovers around the national average at 5 percent.

"Join us in sending a very strong message to our students that job opportunities are going to be limited without a high school degree or more," Ballengee said.

Ken Anderson of Anderson and Associates commended the county schools for adopting such a program and encouraged other business owners to sign the agreement. Anderson learned of the program last year through the Blue Ridge Regional Education and Training Council and immediately agreed to become a business-schools partner.

"The things I really like about this program is that it's simple and inexpensive," Anderson said. "This is a good give and take and a good relationship with the schools that really produces results."

Three years ago, the county started participating in a similar, national program called Tech Prep, an agreement between community colleges, the community and the high schools in which students take courses that will prepare them for the working world. The work-force endorsement agreement also guarantees that students will possess the technical skills needed to compete in the job market, but it goes one step further by supplying student transcripts .

By the year 2000, Ballengee said, 80 percent of all jobs will require some basic technology skills.

"These are skills that the public school are not teaching," he said. "This is what we want to change and we need your help in doing it."

The work-force endorsement agreement will take effect in January, at which time high school graduates can apply to participating businesses for jobs.