Trick question?

[Rastis]

I chose B. I absolutely do not see how D can be the correct answer.

In response to a high unemployment rate and to complaints from businesses that prospective employees are under-qualified for the available jobs, particularly in the sciences, the Labor Department has released its plan to address both problems. It will offer six-month training programs, free of charge to unemployed citizens, to prepare citizens for jobs as laboratory and medical technicians. Each citizen will have the opportunity to participate in one program free of charge, and the Labor Department will offer salary subsidies to firms that hire graduates of these programs.

Which of the following, if true, would constitute reason to believe that the labor department's plan will not achieve its aims?

a) Many universities and technical colleges offer nine- and twelve-month programs to train students in the same fields.

b) Laboratory and medical technician jobs are not the only jobs for which companies are struggling to find qualified employees.

c) Similar programs in neighboring countries have had mixed results.

d) Successful graduates of technical training programs nearly always have scientific job experience prior to enrolling in such programs.

e) The proposed program is significantly more expensive than several alternatives proposed by members of the legislative body.

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Hi Rastis,

This CR prompt asks us to focus on the labor department's PLAN, so we need to understand how THIS PLAN is supposed to "work." We're asked to find an answer for why this plan WILL NOT achieve its aims, so we have to look for some "weak spot" in the plan's logic.

The Plan:
The Labor department has a plan to respond to the HIGH UNEMPLOYMENT and complaints that prospective employees are UNDER-QUALIFIED for available jobs (particularly in the SCIENCES). This plan is meant to combat 2 issues: the high unemployment AND the under-qualified applicants (especially in the field of science).
-Training programs will be offered to UNEMPLOYED CITIZENS.
-Training programs will be free (one training program per citizen).
-The labor department will offer subsidies to firms that hire GRADUATES of these programs.

So the plan is meant to work in this way:
Unemployed citizens ---> take free training program --> graduate from the program with qualifications (particularly in sciences) --> hired by firms --> unemployment decrease and firms get properly-qualified employees.

We're looking for a reason why THIS PLAN won't achieve its goals. Since there are so many "steps", there are a number of "weak spots" in which the plan might not do what it's supposed to do. If we can find an answer that points out a problem with ANY of the steps in this plan, then we will properly weaken the plan.

Answer B does NOT address the plan at all, so it cannot be used to weaken the effectiveness of the plan. Answer D addresses the issue of successfully completing the training program by pointing out that most successful graduates NEARLY ALWAYS have scientific job experience PRIOR to enrolling in the program. Since this plan involves offering training to UNEMPLOYED CITIZENS, there is likely an issue with the prior training that these citizens have. IF they don't have the necessary scientific training to successfully complete the training course, then they're not likely to graduate (or to be hired).

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

[Rastis]

Rich,

So answer choice D is suggesting that the scientific training that was offered elsewhere didn't get people employed so why would the Labor Dept's plan work? This seems to be very upper level and tricky.

Would you characterize answer choice B as being Out of Focus? I mean, since the Labor Dept is trying to attack unemployment, this answer choice would seem correct.

Jesse

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Hi Jesse,

This prompt is certainly layered (even the plan itself is meant to accomplish 2 goals, which implies multiple "steps" for the plan to "work."). Ask yourself what you ASSUME when you hear the phrase "training program" in this prompt:

I would assume that:
1) The training plan focuses on skills that are relevant to laboratory and medical technicians (since those jobs are mentioned in the prompt).
2) Training implies some type of "building up" of a skill set. So whoever takes this training program will actually develop the skills that the program teaches.
3) No inherent obstacle exists for someone to successfully complete the program.

Answer D calls into question the third assumption in the list; without some type of prior scientific job experience, it might not be possible to successfully complete the course (which would likely mean that the citizens would not be hired, the unemployment problem would not be fixed and companies would not be able to properly staff their positions). Answer B IS absolutely out-of-focus, since it talks about OTHER jobs that this plan would not account for.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich