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Past Initiatives

High Performance Work and Workers (1999)

BHEF established a Task Force on High-Performance Work and Workers to examine how well today's college graduates are prepared to meet the demands of the modern work place. The task force was co-chaired by Thomas Labrecque, President and CEO of the Chase Manhattan Corporation, and James Duderstadt, former President of the University of Michigan.

The task force found that a large gap exists between the preparation students receive and the knowledge and skills they need to contribute successfully in the workplace. This research resulted in a 1997 report, Spanning the Chasm: Corporate and Academic Cooperation to Improve Work-Force Preparation (pdf). The report recommends that business and higher education work collaboratively to ensure that America's college students can contribute to maintaining America's competitiveness in a global economy. Business and higher education must articulate clearly what knowledge and skills are required and also provide students with the education and training opportunities to acquire them.

BHEF hosted five regional workshops throughout the country to disseminate the task force's findings and to enable leaders within the academic and corporate communities to effect change in their own regions. The 1999 report, Spanning the Chasm: A Blueprint for Action (pdf), presents ideas gathered from these regional meetings. The report outlines ways in which business and higher education leaders can collaborate and cooperate to help ensure that college graduates are prepared to meet the demands of the high-performance workplace and global society of the 21st century.