| This study explains the origins of federal investment in human capital between 1900 and the end of World War II. It traces the formation of public policies, initiated largely by the private sector---elements of business, organized labor, public intellectuals, and professional educators---that led to federal manpower training and workforce education programs over the remainder of the century. Federal funding for manpower training, however, fluctuated over time. It increased during crises, but receded during times of prosperity, when the private sector and individuals made the largest investments in human capital.;While human capital development encompasses most forms of vocational education, commercial education, technical training, apprentice training, and trade school instruction, I include here on-the-job training, adult education, correspondence instruction, business schools, and training in the workplace. The latter methods of instruction occur outside of formal schools, what the economist of education August Bolino referred to as "nonformal education." The emphasis here is on non-agricultural, blue-collar and white-collar occupations, skilled and semi-skilled work. Americans increasingly found myriad opportunities for training, ranging from formal schooling in public and private trade and commercial schools, to correspondence instruction, or even from military occupational training. The study is organized chronologically into ten chapters and utilizes archival and textual sources that cut across business, labor, education, and government.;A variety of themes are addressed in this study: It describes efforts to initiate industrial or vocational education and public workforce training at the turn of the twentieth century to make Americans productive workers, thoughtful consumers, and better citizens. Public and private cooperation helped train tens of thousands of Americans for civilian and military duties during both world wars and served as precedents for subsequent training and for the development of professional managers.;The federal government offered little training during the 1920s. Usually only large firms could afford to train employees. However, individuals "self-invested" by using their own time and resources to attend evening and continuation schools, private commercial schools, business schools, and junior colleges; they also purchased correspondence courses from private firms and public and private colleges and universities. A few educators believed that new technology---the radio---would revolutionize classroom instruction and expand adult education. The Americanization movement, which declined after immigration restriction legislation in the early 1920s, provided an infrastructure for adult education during the 1920s and 1930s. In addition the military promoted training as a recruitment incentive and required skilled soldiers and sailors to operate the technologies of warfare.;New technologies and new industries, especially electronics, communications, automotive and aviation, emerged to create new occupations. As a result of the Great Depression, however, public education and training opportunities for adults dissipated. Small training programs in New Deal agencies---coupled with the Labor Department's organization of joint apprenticeship training that had languished since the turn of the century---formed the core of the massive training programs established during the Second World War. The resulting full employment eroded barriers, however temporarily, that segmented workers by race, sex, age and physical ability. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, labor demand became so acute that politicians considered drafting men and women into wartime industrial production. Eventually cooperation between the public and private sectors together produced an astonishing investment in human capital that helped millions of previously untrained workers acquire useful skills. After the nation experienced true "full employment" during World War II, politicians and policy makers discovered the many benefits of investing in human capital and maintaining a full employment economy in the postwar period.;Public education and workforce training have assumed different functions over time: they served to improve the quality or character of individuals, educate Americans and immigrants for citizenship, or prepare workers for the labor market. New interest groups---labor organizations, women, African Americans, and professional educators, for example---emerged early in the century. The study also charts the collaboration between state and federal governments, the emergence of a national labor market, and structural changes in the national economy. In the final analysis, as technologies and labor market demands continue to change in the twenty-first century, workforce education and training will remain a central component of national economic life. |
