Date of Award

1994

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Human Resource Education and Workforce Development

First Advisor

Betty C. Harrison

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to: describe Louisiana dislocated workers who participated in the Louisiana Job Link Center (LA JLC) at LSU by workplace literacy skills (reading, writing, computation), occupational interests, and the demographics of age-group, gender, educational level, and DOT code of last job; compare workplace literacy skills on selected demographics; and determine if workplace literacy skills are independent of occupational interests and selected demographics. A simple random sample of 232 dislocated workers was drawn from the accessible population. The data used in this study was obtained from a larger data base collected and held by the Director of the LA Job Link Center at LSU. Four instruments were used to collect that data, three of which provided information for this study. A data recording form designed by Harvill (1993) was modified and used to compile data for this study. The data were summarized using: frequencies and percentages for ordinal data; t-test to determine differences in workplace literacy by gender; one-way ANOVA to compare differences in workplace literacy scores by categories of DOT codes and occupational interests; step-wise multiple regression analysis to determine if a model existed which explained a significant portion of the variance in workplace literacy scores from selected demographics. The findings. 50.6% of the population sample were female; 165 (71%) of the dislocated workers were aged 26-45; about 88% had at least a high school education; 64.33% had been dislocated from jobs categorized by DOT codes Clerical and Sales (41.77%) and Professional/Managerial/Technical (22.66%). A total of 215 (91%) of the dislocated workers at the LA JLC at LSU scored above the minimum acceptable total (225) on the reading assessment; a total of 172 (73.28%) scored above the minimum acceptable total (225) on the math portion of the workplace literacy tests. Reading skills correlated with educational level but were independent of age-group, gender, DOT code, and occupational interests. Math scores correlated with educational level and DOT code but were also independent of age-group, gender, DOT code, and occupational interests. The best predictor of workplace literacy skills was educational level.

Pages

147

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_disstheses.5790

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