As one British study argued, the needs of industry' cannot be easily identified as the 'requirements of capital' as there are many different, co-existing capitals (CCCS 1981:21). Jamieson recognised this difficulty in trying to describe the schools-industry movement in Britain in the 1980's. He notes how the movement has attempted to promote certain skills, attitudes and knowledge inside the school system which are designed to change the education system in one way or another. Skills, he argues, are not skills at all, but either attitudes or knowledge known as 'social and life skills' (1985:27). According to Jamieson, these include the attitude of young people towards work and employment and knowledge of the reward structure of industry. The latter encompass a heterogeneous collection of social and life skills - presenting well at interviews, listening to and following instructions and interpersonal skills in the workplace.
What industry needs and wants, therefore, are good workers, flexible, obedient,
submissive and with 'a willingness to carry out mundane tasks' (Williams, 1979: Vol 1:109). Social life skills (SLS) training and its various derivatives are designed to produce workers for the fast-growing service sector described earlier in Chapter 4. Cohen has analysed what this means for British school leavers: "(For) youth labour is now to be socialised in and through the discipline of impression management.... Training in so called SLS is essentially training in behavioural etiquettes...." (1984:114). This kind of pre-vocational socialisation also occurs in general subjects, an example of which was found in a Queensland text book used by girls studying commercial studies:
"The art of good grooming may be rated on a par with the basic skills of a good secretary".
The book also advises the girls to be uncritical of their bosses:
"Naturally, you will not point out his mistakes...Don't stare when he stops to collect his thoughts; keep your eyes on your notebook" (quoted by Taylor,
1984:10)
These kinds of etiquettes are still featured in commercial studies textbooks used widely in Australian secondary schools. The Australian Standard Typing (1989) for example, contains several extracts similar to those quoted by Taylor. The book is used at Stirling College and the secretarial studies teachers are aware of the hidden messages but believe they do not have the time to discuss the extracts with their classes. One teacher believed that the students do actually internalise the messages because they are only involved in passively typing the scripts.
Whilst personal appearance and deportment have been associated with typing and shorthand classes for decades, Wringe argues that the new vocational skills are penetrating every classroom. The skills are not saleable or transferable skills, but rather about personal and social characteristics such as grooming, punctuality and cooperativeness. Industry, he
writes, requires docile workers and a workforce that is "...increasingly flexible and tolerant of boring and tedious activities" (Wringe, 1988:59). While being punctual, tidy and respectful might be a common requirement of a large number of different occupations and therefore generic rather than specific skills, they are, according to Wringe, "... highly specific to a particular level of employment, namely the lowest, and for this reason may act as a barrier to pupils' mobility or the adoption of more elevated ambitions" (1988:67). It is for this reason, he notes, that most economically successful people in society acquired limited vocational skills but a good, general educational background. Vocational skills are good enough for other people's children, but not for those who pay for their offsprings' private education.
Efforts to vocationalise the curriculum in many countries are based on the
underemployment problems of school leavers. Referring to the vocationalising of education at an international level, Lauglo and Lillis argue that vocational policies are designed to help school leavers obtain a livelihood as well as to become more productive in the work obtained. But they add: " Behind this rationale lie strong political instructions to use vocationalised programs as a means of lowering occupational aspirations to more 'realistic' levels as well as to meet lower-level manpower needs (Lauglo and Lillis,1988:9). Trends towards
vocationalising the curriculum have been comprehensively reported in Britain (cf the MSC) and in the United States (cf CETE). There is also increasing evidence of similar developments in Australia, particularly in the ACT. These are discussed below.
Interpersonal Skills in the Workplace
In Australia, White has pointed to the current notion of skill which requires workers to be flexible, adaptable and disciplined. "Increasingly general 'transferable skills' are being linked to training based upon particular concepts of 'employability' relating to the personal attributes of the young person, rather than to specific industrial skills" (White, 1989:11). White argues that ATS participants are mainly concentrated in clerical, office and retail work where this kind of training is emphasised. The 'skills' are 'impression management' and 'personality development' which stress the teaching of self-control and the regulation of one's public behaviour as an essential feature of one's skill enhancement (1989:12). Interpersonal skills are now expUcitiy linked to employability in the service sector.
The National Training Council (NTC) of Australia believes that interpersonal skills training should begin in the secondary school "...as part of tiie general move in society for schools to be more occupationally oriented...." (NTC 1986:141). The Council studied customer service requirements in three employment areas - finance, government, tourism and leisure. The last mentioned is of most interest in the present study since it is the hospitality industry that is touted as an employment growth area for ACT school leavers. The jobs included in this category by the NTC included: accommodation, hospitality, transport, travel agents, entertainment and recreation. The skills required for good client service were an appropriate attitude and empathy towards clients as well as "courtesy, warmth and
friendliness" (1986:85). The report cites a British study of waiters in prestigious hotels which suggests the kind of'servility' that is required in some of the hospitality occupations: Waiters needed to be "...pleasant, charming, polite and discreet. Others emphasised the need to show respect and play a submissive role" (1986:32).
Roles in the hospitality industry require friendly employees and the report sought to discover through extensive discussions what friendliness actually means in the service sector. Two behaviours were identified to describe a friendly employee - (a) smiling at, and (b) talking with customers- "Friendliness was behaviourally defined with emphasis on smiling and employees practised smiling in the mirror and with each other. It was then suggested that each employee smile at least four times when taking an order from a customer..." (1986:32).
Apart from the ability to be able to smile, the jobs require few other skills. In the 34 jobs in finance, tourism and government, more than half were said by employees to lack power of any kind and only two required high levels of expertise. Tourism was the most unskilled with a 3 to 1 ratio of low-skilled to medium-skilled jobs (1986: Table 6:47). There seems to be Utde demand made on workers in the personality market apart from the emotional labour involved in the 'keep smiling' requirement. School leavers with a Year 12 certificate would have every right to question a system which offers these kinds of jobs as an attractive destination after twelve years of schooling. It is for this reason that the E course initiative has been opposed by ACT college teachers. School-industry links are another example of attempts to make schools more relevant to the world of work.
The Culture of Service
Spring has questioned the 'new partnership' between business and schools in the USA and asks whose interests does the partnership serve? He cites several case studies of school- industry links most of which serve the interests of capital. In Boston, for example, "the school system seems primarily designed to prepare students for fast food chains and other service industries" (Spring, 1972:249). Other program organisers freely admit using the school system to train students for local employers. Spring questions the morality of allowing companies to use school time and resources "to socialize students to their particular corporate values" (1972:252). This kind of ideological penetration is described in 'McDonald's in the classroom' (Appendix I). As explained in Appendix I, McDonald's management has
convinced at least some Australian academics that its 'corporate culture' is a worthy model for Australian secondary schools. If students are alienated at school, the argument goes, then identify what keeps them hopping in Hamburger Heaven and apply it to the classroom.
Watkins argues how the recognition of worker alienation is likely to lead to "...the fostering of a work culture where the beliefs and goals engendered within an organisation can be internalised by the employees" (1988:72). McDonald's promotion of its corporate culture is an example of how the fast food giant seeks to 'McDonaldise' its crew members.
Coincidentally, the ACTS A's recent touting of a 'culture of service' came immediately after a major restructure of the profession caused a drop in teacher morale. The language of this particular ideology mirrors the world of small business: "... an increasing commitment to the notion of the customer-driven organisation.... As for service, when I use this term I do not mean 'servility'. Service is about the provision of intangible products in general, about delivery, responsiveness, empathy and relationships" (Sawatzki, 1989).
The 'culture of service' as defined by the Assistant CEO is about 'shared values and beliefs'. Again, the language is reminiscent of McDonald's corporate culture in what is described as a customer-driven education system:
"We need to...develop customer-friendly systems; recruit, hire, train and promote for service; market service to customers and employers; measure service, give feedback; reward good performance..." (Sawatzki, 1989).
If a culture of service is to be the new watchword for ACT teachers, it is a logical extension of this ideology to promote E courses in the service sector, particularly hospitahty and tourism, but also in supermarkets and fast-food outlets.
6. Conclusion
As we have seen in this chapter, teachers reject the narrow vocationalism of such courses. An unintended consequence of the E course proposal has been to create the climate for a more favourable attitude towards work experience (both paid and unpaid) within a work education curriculum. Parents, employers and students are in favour of a curriculum which teaches skills relating to post-school employment. The difficulty for teachers is to distinguish between really useful skills and activities which trivialise skills. The construction of
'productive affective personality traits' as 'skills' needed by industry highlights the naUire of work in which these skills are necessary. Interpersonal and social skills are the 'people- handling' skills required of workers in the personality market of the service sector, which as we have seen in Chapter 4, is characterised by deskilling and underemployment. The recent promotion of a 'culture of service' in the ACT school system can be viewed as part of the impression management now required for success in the service industries.
It would be a parody of education if these practices were to be reinforced in secondary colleges. Teachers generally agree that E courses, particularly in the service sector represent a devaluing of educational currency. It is for this reason that these issues, as well as the first- hand experiences of student-workers need to become the subject of critical analysis within a work education curriculum. Gaskell has also argued that vocationalism has to be made visible so that the vocational logic of shooling can be integrated within a broad approach to learning. She sees this as a challenge to Canadian education (1987:271). It is no less of a challenge to Australian educators and policy-makers. Some suggestions as to how a work education curriculum might be developed are included in Appendix VII. The final chapter sums up the main findings of the thesis.