Robert Holley Jr. has fallen in love with education.
"I'll be in school forever now," said the 57-year-old steelworker, who has taken courses in photography, computers and math in recent years. "This is the best opportunity in the world."
Mr. Holley's newfound infatuation has come thanks to the Career Development Center, a joint project between Bethlehem Steel Corp. and the United Steelworkers of America -- the union representing workers at the Sparrows Point mill.
The center, part of a nationwide program at major steel companies, offers a wide variety of options, ranging from technical courses in computers and various crafts to liberal arts studies, many of which have no direct connection to the steel industry.
Company and union officials praise the program as a way of boosting the curiosity and creativity of the workers -- regardless of the field. But other experts question whether such open-ended training has any positive effect on the bottom line.
In Mr. Holley's case, he took a five-month photography course at Dundalk Community College last year, followed by a course on computers. Now, he is sharpening his math skills, which he bluntly called "terrible."
While he hopes to use the photography knowledge when he retires in about two years, Mr. Holley said he was getting more than just future dollars and cents from the courses.
"It makes me feel better," he said. "It does a lot of things for me. I get along with my wife better. I have other things to do than sit around and bicker with her."
The Career Development program got its start in 1989 when the United Steelworkers negotiated an extensive job retraining program with 14 steel companies, including Bethlehem. One of the chief aims was to help the thousands of workers being laid off at the time to move into other jobs.
Funded by a 10-cent an hour assessment for each hour a union member works, the national program now has 50 centers around the country with a budget of between $14 million and $15 million, said Jim Murry, executive director of the Institute for Career Development in Merrillville, Ind.
Since courses started to become available in 1991, about 16 percent of the 75,000 eligible workers have taken classes in the program, Mr. Murry said. At Sparrows Point, the program spends about $400,000 to $500,000 a year, according to Dwight C. Iler, administrator/counselor of the Sparrows Point center.
When the local center started two years ago, many of the clients were laid off workers looking for training to land a new job. But because of the 1993 contract that prohibits layoffs through August 1999, most of the participants now are preparing for careers after retirement.
"The bulk of the individuals who are currently active, they're looking ahead in life," Mr. Iler said of the workers, whose average age is 50. Starting in a trailer-like structure off North Point Boulevard, the program took a major step this September when it moved into more permanent headquarters at the steel mill's old General Mechanical building across from Bethlehem's shipyard.
The center occupies two floors, complete with classrooms and gleaming white computers. It is presided over by Mr. Iler, a former -- and jovial -- metallurgical inspector in the steel mill, who sports the nickname of "Doc" from his years of counseling fellow workers and his role as the assistant minister at an Apostolic church.
In two years, 1,385 workers -- or about 29 percent of the 4,800 workers covered at the Sparrows Point plant -- have taken courses through the Career Development Center, Mr. Iler said. There are about 450 workers currently participating.
About a third of the participants take computer courses that are taught on the 10 computers at the center. The center also offers training in basic reading, writing and math courses to workers who are trying to gain promotions.
Others take technical courses at Dundalk Community College and Essex Community College, with the program paying up to $1,500 in tuition annually for each worker.
Yet, some workers pursue more offbeat subjects including photography, art and even karate. Even these help workers sharpen their intellectual skills, said Duane R. Dunham, president of Bethlehem's Sparrows Point Division.
"If you look at what we are doing today and what we're going to be doing in the future, it's absolutely critical that education be part of the effort," Mr. Dunham said.
All the courses must teach some of the 13 basic skills developed by the American Council on Education, Mr. Iler said. These include such broad skills as reading, computation, trouble-shooting -- and even learning to learn.
"We build at least four of those skills into everyone of the customized courses that we run," said Mr. Iler.
Such a broad-based educational program is something few companies can afford or justify, said Frederick W. Ball, executive vice president of Goodrich & Sherwood, a management consulting firm in New York.
PTC While retraining programs for displaced workers are common, he said most companies will not spring for education unless there is a direct payback. "Is it a good trend?" Mr. Ball asked. "That gets back to all of the theory on life and leisure time and so forth. The reality says, I don't see a lot of dollars for a lot of companies."
Still, the program is not wholly unique. A number of companies, particularly General Electric, aim to make workers "permanently employable," while withdrawing the promise of permanent employment.
"It's the notion that if they had to leave tomorrow, they would be able to find another job," said M. Susan Taylor, professor of management and organization at the University of Maryland's College of Business and Management. "None of of us can sit back and say it's a cushy life, because it's not anymore," she said.