Job Readiness Training: Preparing Low-income Adults for Employment

• In Event: 413 - Section on Organizations, Occupations and Work Refereed Roundtable Session. Table 01. Culture and Organizations
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Table 16. Employability

Abstract

The American federal government has invested in job training for disadvantaged workers since the New Deal; however, the nature of this training has changed over the years. Traditionally, job training has taught technical or “hard” skills. In recent years, the focus has moved to Job Readiness Training, short-term training for quick placement in any job, designed to promote employability by focusing on the behaviors and attitudes that job seekers should display in the interview and once in the workplace. Job Readiness Training is widely prescribed for many unemployed populations, and is particularly popular in workforce programs for disadvantaged populations with very low incomes. This paper examines the norms related to employability that are taught in Job Readiness Training programs for low-income people. Through interviews and participant observation with staff in Job Readiness Training programs, and review of Job Readiness Training curricular materials, this paper informs questions about what it means to be employable in the unstable labor markets of twenty-first century advanced capitalism, and the significance of the generic ideal worker prototype for our larger cultural conceptions of employment. Interrogating the prescriptive ideal worker type and the assumptions behind it offers insight into how we navigate multiple and sometimes conflicting cultural norms, particularly in a period when employment relationships are increasingly tenuous. And assessing an anti-poverty policy strategy based on behaviors, values and attitudes informs larger questions about our cultural understandings of the causes and experiences of poverty and unemployment, and our priorities in addressing these issues.

Author

• Sara Chaganti, Brandeis University