Drawing together school-based and work-based learning practices to connect fragmented elements, individuals, and institutions requires a systematic and collaborative framework. In a school-to-work system, guiding youth and adults through the processes of career development and continuous self-improvement becomes everybody' s job. School-to-work systems present unparalleled leadership opportunities for community college counselors and career development specialists. Quality initiatives in business, industry, and education provide a superb framework for that leadership.
Quality initiatives have played a major role in revitalizing and transforming countless American businesses and industries into high-performing work organizations. Regardless of the model that is most popular at the time, names like Total Quality Management, Continuous Quality Improvement, and Quality Corporate Culture find their roots in W. Edwards Deming' s management philosophies, which catapulted Japan into manufacturing and technological leadership (Walton, 1986).
As tech-prep and school-to-work programs and other business-education linkages promote quality initiatives, community colleges adopt quality models to improve program effectiveness and customer service. Quality models generally share the common elements of insistence on quality; teamwork and participatory management; customer focus; seeking and fixing faults in the system; and continual education and training. Each element presents a key to successful involvement of community college counseling and career development personnel in school-to-work systems. This chapter will explore new directions NEW DIRECTIONS FOR COMMUNITY COLLEGES, no. 97