A comparison of distributive education cooperative training station placements with projected future employment demands

Abstract

Cooperative distributive education is a program of instruction for students with career objectives in the area of marketing and distribution. The program consist of related classroom material coordinated with training station placement in a distributive occupation. The problem associated with this study is what distributive occupation areas are being used in the states of Montana and Wyoming as training stations and how do they compare with projected employment demands for the future. The study was designed to determine which of these distributive occupational areas are being utilized most, which areas were being used least and what recommendations could be made as to which areas should be emphasized. The study used a survey of all distributive education cooperative programs in the two states to discover which of the distributive occupational areas were currently being used as training stations and a comparison of these figures to current national projections as to occupational employment demands by the year 1980. The results involved 27 of the 31 programs surveyed with a total of 805 students placed in training stations. The distributive areas currently receiving emphasis in the two states were food services, retail apparel and accessories, retail food distribution, general merchandise, retail automotive, personal services, retail petroleum and recreation and tourism. These areas were consistent with projected employment demands with the exception of retail apparel and accessories and retail food distribution. Recommendations were made to increase knowledge at all levels as to projected employment needs and to work within each program to train students for occupational areas which will likely be available in the job market when the student becomes competent as an entry level employee.