A public sector-private industry success story

A Public Sector/Private Industry Success Story

A cooperative venture between the federal government, a local school district, and the surrounding business community is providing a unique educational opportunity for youth with disabilities. The participants are the U.S. Department of Labor, the Tacoma (Washington) School District, Puget Sound National Bank, and the West Coast Grocery Company--a large grocery wholesaler doing over $1 billion business a year in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. The object is to train students with learning disabilities or other special needs for careers in the retail grocery business.

The Store Project

The concept came from a Tacoma teacher, Joanne Balmer, and her husband who worked for a food wholesaler. Her idea was developed by representatives from the school system and the local business community in the spring of 1977. Training got underway in October of 1981 in what was called the Store Project.

The need was never in doubt. In the words of Wayne Spence, coordinator for the Tacoma School District: "There is a considerable portion of our school population-- about 12 percent--who are not going to college and who are not going to make it in a regular trade school setting. This amounts to 3,000 youngsters with learning or behavioral problems in the district. This program is for such students.'

"The goal of the Store Project,' added Jim Hoghaug, Vice President of Marketing and New Store Development of West Coast Grocery, the prime backer and organizer for the project, "is to train handicapped students, 16 to 21, for unsubsidized employment in the retail grocery industry.'

The program is designed to provide students with an overall experience. "They can specialize when they get out on the job,' Spence explained. The program is a major effort to break the bonds of poverty for the students involved.

For the first two years the entire program operated out of a simulated grocery store in downtown Tacoma. West Coast Grocery worked in partnership with school district personnel in developing the process.

The program is divided into three phases. Phase I concentrates on improving the trainees' academic skills as they relate to employment in the retail grocery industry. Phase II, called simulation, focuses on teaching the basic skills that are specific to the retail industry. This includes use of cash registers, store security and sanitation, ordering, stocking and merchandising. The simulation area is furnished with cash registers, checkout stands, and shelves stocked with merchandise. Phase III of the project involves placement of students in unsubsidized employment.

Although 97 students were trained during those first two years, with 82 percent of them finding employment, there were a number of training aspects which could not be covered without experience in a commercially operated grocery store. Thus, a full-service commercial grocery store, called Peoples Market, was added to the Store Project in October of 1983. As the ceremonial ribbon was cut by the Tacoma School Board President, the Jason Lee High School band played rousing marches.

The new facility was leased with $80,000 awarded to the school district by the U.S. Department of Labor through the Institute for Economic Development. Equipment and stock were purchased with a $165,000 loan from Puget Sound National Bank. Peoples Market is governed by a five-member board of local business people who are responsible for overseeing the successful operation and management of the store.

The store is staffed by eight fulltime industry professionals. As students acquire a basic knowledge of industry procedures at the simulation facility, they are scheduled for three-hour shifts at Peoples Market, where they put into practice their newly acquired skills in a realistic work environment. They also receive additional training not available at the simulation site, such as produce preparation and layout and meat-wrapping.

Students need to be in a school classroom to qualify for the program. They must then be recommended by their teacher or guidance counselor and must pass a review process for final selection.

"Our interest,' said school representative Wayne Spence, "is not to choose the most extremely disadvantaged of potential candidates, but to select from the ones that make up the greatest number.'

The training process itself is unique, and some of the results are almost unbelievable. For instance, in the initial evaluation, it may be that a student has good potential but a very weak grasp of math. This is not an insurmountable obstacle. In this program students learn a tremendous amount of math that they don't even realize they're learning, because it's all done in a very practical way. Says Spence, "we've got records of a student moving from a 2nd to a 9th grade math level in about 32 weeks. Now we've been told that this is impossible. But we can do it!'

By the time a student has toted up purchases on the cash register or computer, added the tax on taxable items, and made change, he has picked up a pretty fair working knowledge of basic arithmetic.

Spence says that about 35 to 40 percent of the gross receipts come from food stamp purchases. Representatives from the U.S. Department of Agriculture come in to talk to the students about the Food Stamp Program. If trainees were to make mistakes in handling food stamps, says Spence, an inspector could pull the whole food stamp program out of the store.

Under the current expanded operation, school officials discovered there weren't enough teachers to work individually with all the students, so "learning stations' were set up at the simulation facility. Explains Spence, "These are nothing more than tables with all the necessary materials for a student to drill himself on a certain subject, say, taxes on taxable groceries. When he feels he's ready to move on, he's tested. If he still has elements to grasp, he's sent back with specific instructions. If he can't grasp something on his own, he'll get all the special help he needs.'

Trainees don't just stop at the "box boy' level. During their time in the program they learn many special skills. They must learn to identify all types and varieties of produce--for instance, there are 27 types of apples currently being sold. Students must be able to identify each type and know when they are at their peak. They also learn the disease factors for all produce items and what can be done about them. In addition, they must become familiar with what all produce items taste like, and how they can be prepared. In the words of Jim Hoghaug, "People expect you to know those things today. When a customer asks you, "How do you prepare this?' You can't say, "I don't cook' or "I don't know.' People expect you to know.'

Trainees get the same general overview in all departments, except the meat department. They don't cut meat because it involves dangerous equipment and requires a special apprenticeship program. But a number of trainees are going into management.

Special problems of special students

The students must sometimes be willing to change their attitude or appearance. They may have to agree to cut their hair, or wear a shirt and tie. On the other hand, sometimes they simply have no money for the needed pants, shirt, or tie, so these are purchased out of program funds. That is now part of the course. The process did not start automatically. As Wayne Spence explains: "At first we had a lot of trouble convincing our school purchasing departments that this was a legitimate expense. Now such expenses are pretty much accepted.'

Spence outlined another problem the program must deal with: "A lot of our students are out on their own. It's often not the nuclear family we used to know. An instructor might get a call in the middle of the night where a student says she's just been kicked out of her home but she wants to stay in the course. "What can I do?' she asks.

"Well we might get her a shelter,' Spence says, "at the Salvation Army for a few weeks, until she can move in with someone like a local minister and his family. Frequently our students don't know how the system works, so we have to help them.'

Jim Hoghaug summed up the entire process: "We take individuals into an environment where we know there's going to be a job. We take them from ground zero to a point of actually finishing the training to the industrial level, and then we help them find a job. Our students are closer to the industry from the very start.'

Although the students aren't paid for working during school hours, they are paid minimum wage for working nights or weekends. There is no cost to the student for any part of the course.

Jason Pulicicchio, a senior at Wilson High School, is one of the students enrolled. Pulicicchio spends each morning working at various jobs at the market and each afternoon in classes at the program's downtown training center.

"I've never had fun doing book-work. I've always liked hands-on stuff. I learn better and I learn more,' Publicicchio said.

"The downtown simulation or training center is very important for a couple of reasons,' Spence explains. "The students go to regular class part of the time for the academic skills. But especially important is the socializing. They won't miss out on the social life they should receive from a regular school setting.'

Another student, Sheila Washington, had been in the program for just two weeks. "I like doing something different,' she said enthusiastically as she stamped prices on newly arrived grocery items. "Everything I do here I like.'

Job placement is a very important aspect of the program. Staffers assist students in the job research. In the words of Hoghaug, "The turnover in the business is high enough that it gives us a very good chance of placing our graduates, and that's something we put a lot of emphasis on.'

Another place where the program stretches its resources to meet the need of its students was outlined by Spence: "We also follow up on our students after they leave,' he explained, "and if they need additional help or consultation, we give it to them. We haven't been able to convince any funding source to pay for this, but we feel it's a vital component and when it's needed, we just do it.'

Benefits to the industry

Representatives from competing grocery stores and chains come into the classroom and the Peoples Market to help teach the trainees. Why is the area's retail grocery industry so strongly behind the program? It's not just for altruistic reasons. In the first place, on-the-job training concepts developed in the 1950s are no longer practical. Most of the employers today are running on such a fine margin of profit that the industry simply cannot afford to take the students and train them--even if part of the salary is supplemented. "So we were looking for a program where we would do the training from beginning to end,' explains Spence. "When we canvassed a number of stores with our plans I asked if they would hire such kids. We received a very positive response. They said, "We aren't concerned with a handicapping condition. What we're concerned with is that they are trained to the industry's standards. If they can do the job, the other part doesn't matter.' Furthermore, employers can hire trained students for the same dollar value that they would hire a trainee for.'

Profits from the Market will cover the costs of leasing the building in the future, repaying the bank loan, paying the salaries of the eight full-time employees, and other operating expenses. After repayment of loans, the store will provide a private unsubsidized source of revenue to support the ongoing program and fund other vocational programs for special needs students.

Peoples Market provides not only an ongoing training environment that dovetails with current project training operations, but also provides excellent field training experience--the final phase prior to students graduating from the project to unsubsidized employment.

How effective is the program? In the words of school district representative Spence, "We see the kids walk in the first day and then watch them when they walk out the last day, and there has usually been a profound change. Yes,' he concluded, "the Store Project is an excellent example of benefits that become available for special needs students when industry and the public sector join forces.'

COPYRIGHT 1984 U.S. Government Printing Office
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group