WORD PROCESSING TRAINING FOR OLDER WORKERS

AGE DISCRIMINATION IN EMPLOYMENT HAS CONSIDERABLY LESSENED THE ECONOMIC AND EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES OF MIDDLE AGED ANDOLDER JOB SEEKERS. INADEQUATE JOB TRAINING REPRESENTS A BARRIER CONFRONTING THE OLDER JOB SEEKER AND IS A MAJOR ASPECT OF AGE DISCRIMINATION. THIS IS ESPECIALLY A PROBLEM TODAY GIVEN CHANGES IN JOB DEMANDS (A SHIFT IN EMPHASIS FROMPHYSICAL SKILLS TO INFORMATION PROCESSING SKILLS) AND THE STEADY INFLUX OF COMPLEX TECHNOLOGY INTO MANY OCCUPATIONS. CURRENTLY NO EFFORTS HAVE BEEN DIRECTED AT DEVELOPING TRAINING PACKAGES FOR COMPUTER ORIENTED TASKS WHICH ADDRESS THE NEEDS OF OLDER LEARNERS. THE INTENT OF THIS RESEARCH ISTO BEGIN TO PROBE THIS ISSUE. SPECIFICALLY, THIS RESEARCH WILL EVALUATE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF STANDARD TRAINING PROCEDURES FOR WORD PROCESSING TASKS FOR OLDER LEARNERS. A 3 X 3 COMPLETELY RANDOMIZED FACTORIAL DESIGN WILL BE USED FOR THIS STUDY. THE FACTORS ARE "AGE" WITH THREE LEVELS (25-39 YEARS OLD, 40-54 YEARS OLD, AND 55-70 YEARS OLD), AND"TYPE OF TRAINING" WITH THREE LEVELS (ON-LINE, DOCUMENT- BASED, AND INSTRUCTOR-BASED). A TOTAL OF 135 HEALTHY, AMBULATORY FEMALE SUBJECTS WILL PARTICIPATE IN THE STUDY (15 PER CELL). SUBJECTS WILL RECEIVE 4 HOURS OF TRAINING IN THE BASIC FUNCTIONS AND OPERATIONS OF WORD PROCESSING. THE TRAINING WILL VARY ACCORDING TO HOW THE INFORMATION IS PRESENTED: ON-LINE (INFO. PRESENTED ON COMPUTER), A SELF TRAINING MANUAL OR LECTURE FORMAT. SUBJECTS WILL THEN BE ASKED TO PERFORM STANDARD WORD PROCESSING TASKS. THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE VARIOUS TRAINING STRATEGIES WILL BE ASSESSED BY MEASURING SUBJECTS' PERFORMANCE ON THE WORD PROCESSING TASKS (SPEED AND ERRORS) AND BY ANALYSIS OF INFORMATION PROVIDED ON A SELF-REPORT INSTRUMENT.