OFF THE DOLE AND ON THE JOB

I want to move up the corporate ladder." That's not a remarkable statement for a career-oriented person--until you consider the speaker. Michael Bradford, 38, battled drugs and alcoholism throughout his adult life and eight months ago was homeless on Washington's streets. His resume includes a six-month jail term for burglary. Born into a welfare family, Bradford fully expected to die in one.

No longer. Today Bradford is a poster boy for the barely begun--and some would say doomed--effort to move most welfare clients off the dole and into decent jobs. As a graduate of a six-week welfare-to-work program sponsored by Marriott Corp., Bradford has a foot on the ladder at the company's Crystal Gateway Hotel in Arlington, Va., where he cleans and sets up conference rooms for $7.60 an hour (vs. the current minimum wage of $4.75). He gets health insurance and profit sharing and will be eligible for stock options next year. "In the beginning I was doubtful," Bradford recalls. "I had started other training programs but never finished them. I wasn't sure this would end any differently."

Bradford isn't the only one with misgivings. "The history of job training is dismal," says Mark Wilson, labor expert at the conservative Heritage Foundation. Yet the Welfare Reform Act will make training more necessary than ever: at least 1.5 million adults now receiving aid will have to find work by 2002. The vibrant economy has already scooped up the top prospects, leaving many who may be burdened by drug addiction, physical abuse, too many children or too little education. Lots of these folks would prefer to be working. But the more cynical think they never will. "The scale of the challenges is so much grander than the scale of the remedies that one can't be euphoric," says former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, who is less than thrilled with the reform legislation.

The magnitude of the task has come home to President Clinton, who has been pleading with corporate America to hire welfare recipients. This week he takes his case to St Louis to meet with leaders of many of the more than 500 companies--from Boeing to Anheuser-Busch--that belong to the Welfare to Work Partnership, organized by the White House in May to employ people on public assistance. "There are jobs open in every city and community in this nation," says Eli Segal, who heads the corporate partnership. "Our task is to prepare welfare recipients to fill them."

That's precisely what trailblazing companies like Marriott and nonprofit outfits like the California-based Center for Employment Training have been demonstrating--albeit to a still relatively tiny degree. Under their tutelage, tens of thousands of former welfare recipients now hold down positions ranging from executive secretary to shop-floor inspector to assistant hotel manager. Importantly, the programs are market driven, providing truly qualified workers for companies with real needs. Here is a look at some of the leading efforts: