| Summary |
The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the rate of attrition and barriers to participation in National Workplace Literacy Programs. Specifically, this study tried to answer: 1) what degree of influence do the barriers to participation have on employees' attendance? 2) what category of barriers has the most affect on employees' attendance? 3) what additional barriers to participation exist? The subjects were administrators (N=52) of Federally funded workplace literacy programs during 1993-1994. The instrument utilized in this study was a three-part questionnaire, which consisted of descriptive questions, a list of barriers to participation, and open-ended questions regarding policy. Data were analyzed using frequencies and descriptive statistics, Spearman rho, a significance test for correlation, and qualitative procedures. The results indicated that a majority of the administrators were female (80%), aged 40- 49 (48%), and held a Master's degree (48%). The program information revealed that most of the workplace literacy programs were housed in the manufacturing industry (68%), had been operating less than one year, and had a community college as an educational partner (48%). The participant information indicated that a bulk of the programs had less than 100 participants currently enrolled (36%) and the educational level of their participants was between the 6th and 8th grade level (32%). In the past six months, 48% of the programs had less than 100 participants to successfully meet their goals, 44% had less than 100 active participants, and 92% had less than 100 informally drop out or formally withdraw. The barriers were grouped into three categories: situational, organizational, and dispositional. The situational (Rs=0.623) and organizational (Rs=0.472) categories were statistically significant, while the dispositional was not. The situational barriers that were significant were "no extra time", "responsibilities at home", "lack of transportation", and "cost/lack of child care". The organizational barriers that were significant were "lack of supervisory support" and "instructor unable to answer questions". Policy implications include the need support services to help participants bridge the gap between home and work to overcome these barriers . Also, educating the business organization as well as the instructors about the relevancy and need for these programs can help build successful workplace literacy programs. |
