These two presentations discuss the National External Diploma Program (EDP) sponsored by the American Council on Education and its relationship to the Department of Labor's Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS) report and to the Comprehensive Adult Student Assessment System (CASAS). The first presentation focuses on the SCANS report and EDP, a competency-based, applied performance assessment system that credentials mature adults who have acquired many of their high school-level skills through their life and work experiences. The SCANS foundation skills that form the backbone of the EDP 65 competencies are listed. These skills are: (1) basic skills (reading, writing, arithmetic, and mathematics, and speaking and listening; (2) thinking skills (the ability to learn, to reason, to think creatively, to make decisions, and to solve problems; and (3) personal qualities (individual responsibility, self-esteem, self-management, sociability, and integrity). EDP's use of a consensus model to determine skills and level of demonstration required for mastery and EDP's combination of methods are described as illustrating SCANS recommendations. An attachment compares skills employers want and skills of EDP graduates. The second presentation considers EDP and CASAS. An attached conference paper describes EDP and how EDP skills are demonstrated. Discussion then centers on how EDP is similar to and different from the CASAS High School Program. Other topics include how EDP differs from the General Educational Development (GED) Tests, the need for an alternative to the GED Tests and CASAS, and implementation of EDP. An attachment compares and contrasts CASAS and EDP. (YLB)