This project will produce and evaluate a video-based training program for enhancing interviewing skills for older dislocated workers. Continuing downsizings disproportionately affect older workers, resulting in long- term unemployment and underemployment. Job interviewing confidence and skills, as well as age discrimination, are frequently cited problems. The proposed instruction is unique in that it can be implemented either independently or in a group training setting and includes specific strategies for countering age-related stereotypes. In Phase I, a 30-minute video will be produced, along with a written manual and audiotape. The video features a panel of experts, commenting on actors modeling interview behaviors in a variety of settings. Through representative samples, each segment will demonstrate do's and don'ts of interviews which cross blue collar, clerical, managerial, gender and ethnic lines. Participants rehearse their own responses to the video interviewer's cues. A randomized outcome study will be conducted with 80 older dislocated workers, to test the efficacy of the training program. In Phase II, written and video components will be combined and expanded into an interactive multi-media program to be delivered over Internet or CD-ROM.
Currently, audio visual materials are unavailable for training older workers for successful job searches. These materials will be distributed to the numerous organizations that train older job seekers: State Employment Development departments, Federal One- Stop Job Training Centers, and non-profit foundations and support groups. For-profit outplacement firms, as well as corporate career centers, are also a market for these materials. The multi-media product crated in Phase II is deliverable over the Internet or as a CD-Rom, expanding the market to libraries, and to individuals with home computers.
