108 STAT. 570 PUBLIC LAW 103-239—MAY 4, 1994 nologies, and such forces, which are ultimately beneficial to the Nation, are shrinking the demand for and undermining the earning power of unskilled labor; (5) the United States lacks a comprehensive and coherent system to help its youths acquire the knowledge, skills, abilities, and information about and access to the labor market necessary to make an effective transition from school to career-oriented work or to further education and training; (6) students in the United States can achieve high academic and occupational standards, and many learn better and retain more when the students learn in context, rather than in the abstract; (7) while many students in the United States have parttime jobs, there is infrequent linkage between— (A) such jobs; and (B) the career planning or exploration, or the schoolbased learning, of such students; (8) the work-based learning approach, which is modeled after the time-honored apprenticeship concept, integrates theoretical instruction with structured on-the-job training, and this approach, combined with school-based learning, can be very effective in engaging student interest, enhancing skill acquisition, developing positive work attitudes, and preparing youths for high-skill, high-wage careers; (9) Federal resources currently fund a series of categorical, work-related education and training programs, many of which serve disadvantaged youths, that are not administered as a coherent whole; and (10) in 1992 approximately 3,400,000 individuals in the United States age 16 through 24 had not completed high school and were not currently enrolled in school, a number representing approximately 11 percent of all individuals in this age group, which indicates that these young persons are particularly imprepared for the demands of a 21st century workforce. 20 USC 6102. SEC. 3. PURPOSES AND CONGRESSIONAL INTENT. (a) PURPOSES.— The purposes of this Act are— (1) to establish a national framework within which all States can create statewide School-to-Work Opportunities systems that— (A) are a part of comprehensive education reform; (B) are integrated with the systems developed under the Goals 2000: Educate America Act and the National Skill Standards Act of 1994; and (C) offer opportunities for all students to participate in a performance-based education and training program that will— (i) enable the students to earn portable credentials; (ii) prepare the students for first jobs in highskill, high-wage careers; and (iii) increase their opportunities for further education, including education in a 4-year college or university; (2) to facilitate the creation of a universal, high-quality school-to-work transition system that enables youths in the United States to identify and navigate paths to productive and progressively more rewarding roles in the workplace;
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