title: The Development of an Educational Program to Meet the Needs of the Adult Government Employee at Hill Air Force Base, Utah
Creators: name: Cloward, Dix W.
Publisher: name: Utah State University
Year: 1970

description: Purpose
The purpose of this study was two-fold: (1) to determine the educational needs of the personnel of the five directorates at Hill Air Force Base; and, (2) to design an educational program to meet those needs.
Procedure
This study consisted of three phases:
Phase One. This phase consisted of identifying the behavioral items that we re us ed in developing the Q-Sort instrument. This was accomplished by a review of job requirement data, by an examination of Project Hy Production, and by personal interviews of the Air Base educational specialists.
Phase Two. This phase consisted of the development of a Q-Sort instrument to be administered to a random sample of supervisory and non~supervisory personnel from each of the five directorates. The respondents ranked the Q-Sort items into seven categories which had been assigned numerical values by the researcher. Mean scores were computed for each statement. Rank order was then established by using the mean scores.
The Spearman Rank Correlation Coefficient was used to determine the degree of agreement between the categories of respondents.
Phase Three. This phase consisted of the development of the organizational structure of the total program. Included was a specific identification of the areas of knowledge that would best satisfy desired behavior, and an explanation of the general education phase of the total program.
Findings
1. The behavioral items identified from the above indicated o sources were many and varied. Each emphasized the need for knowledge in English and mathematic skills. Knowledge of the myriad logistics processes were all mentioned as desired behavior.
2. The rankings by the supervisory and non- supervisory personnel of the vocational statements were also varied but a high level of agreement concerning the importance of the English and mathematics skills was evident.
3. A high level of agreement was evident between supervisory and non- supervisory personnel concerning their opinions of the importance of the Q-Sort items. The correlation coefficients ranged from .832 to .904 for the five directorates.
4. A core area and five specialty areas were developed from the information derived from the Q-Sort instrument. The combined core and specialty areas constituted the major for the total program.
5. The design of the total program was reversed, requiring the student to complete the major first then the general education requirements. The general education phase was designed to allow the student to complete it by independent-guided study.
Conclusions
1. All personnel consider a knowledge of English skills highly important in the performance of their jobs.
2. Skill in the use of mathematics and statistics was considered to be of intermediate importance.
3. The personnel in each directorate ranked a knowledge of the vocational skills related to the activities they were currently performing as highly important.
4. There was considerable agreement between supervisory and non-supervisory personnel in their opinions of the importance of the behavioral statements.
5. The educational needs of the government employee could best be satisfied by incorporating the reverse plan and the independent-guided study philosophy into the design.
Recommendations
1. A study similarly designed be made at another aIr materiel area to determine the level of agreement between the personnel at the base and those of the Ogden Air Materiel Area.
2. A similar study be made at other government entities to determine the educational needs of the employees of those installations.
3. This study be replicated in approximately five years to determine what changes should be made in this program.
4. A study designed to test the effectiveness of this program be made.