This "feature issue" focuses on transition from school to adult life for persons with disabilities. Included are "success stories," brief program descriptions, and a list of resources. Individual articles include the following titles and authors: "Transition: An Energizing Concept" (Paul Bates); "Transition…

The North Carolina 4-H CareerSmarts Program is designed to unite the public and private sectors to provide career education for young people. This packet contains three handbooks (for agents, proteges, and mentors) that explain the program and outline practical ways to conduct it. CareerSmarts consists of three phases. Phase one is conducted…

Designed as the final step in a carefully articulated work-readiness program, Mentors provides students interested in health care careers with an opportunity to develop superior employability skills, while striking a balance between work and school. The Mentors program links the school community, the student, and host organizations in a mutually…

Shadows is an individualized, hands-on, real-world career experience that provides students with a structured look at the future world of work in health care. The program helps students build a bridge between school-based learning and established health care skills standards. Shadows focuses on expanding the student's horizons beyond the classroom…

The Insights program begins the journey of becoming ready to work by introducing students to the varied career opportunities, skills, and technologies in today's health care industry. Students travel as a class or group to the host site for a series of seminars. While on site, the students and their accompanying teachers meet with professionals…

This article synthesizes descriptions of and recommendations for community transition teams which assist in the transition of youth with learning or other disabilities from school to adult life. The levels, composition, and functions of transition teams are described. Community-level transition teams are shown to be critical support vehicles for…

A study examined the relationship between perceived communication competence and its importance in business organizations and the need for additional training of college business students in communication competencies. A survey was sent to all individuals who had indicated to a university center for management education and services an active…

Written for both educators and business people, this document provides guidelines for business-education collaboration. The guide defines the characteristics of business-education partnerships that effectively promote school improvement and describes the stages a partnership undergoes as it progresses to a fully developed collaborative effort. The…

This handbook was developed to encourage business/education partnerships throughout Indiana. The first section introduces the idea of business-education partnerships and provides some examples. It then outlines principles for a successful partnership, warns against possible pitfalls, and estimates partnership costs. In the second section, the role…

A collaborative study surveyed cooperative vocational education teachers (N=59) and secondary special education teachers (N=16) from metropolitan, urban, and rural school districts in Washington State regarding (1) the number of physically or mentally disabled youth who are enrolled in and placed on jobs from cooperative education classes; (2)…

This resource manual documents an example of an exemplary program of cooperation among businesses, industries, community organizations, and schools in the Hamilton-Wentworth region in Canada. It presents an Industry-Education Council (IEC) model that provides a framework to achieve the goal of finding community partners for each interested school.…

This handbook provides basic information about forming and operating an industry-education partnership council (IEPC). Purpose of the handbook is to enable interested communities to replicate the model IEPC and develop strong local industry-education alliances. Part I is an introduction to industry-education partnerships. Part II focuses on…

This guide is intended to help school personnel, as well as community and private sector providers, make the most effective use of tours and guest speakers. The booklet offers a step-by-step guide to (1) designing a meaningful experience for students; (2) assuring the teacher of a successful and well-organized activity; and (3) giving the provider…

This handbook contains broad guidelines for increasing cooperation among business, industry, labor, governmental agencies, professionals, parents, students, and educators through the creation of business/industry/education partnerships. The material is designed primarily to provide a framework for building or improving such partnerships or…

This guide identifies the key steps that any work/education partnership program should take to achieve success and patterns of critical issues that such collaborations must address if they are to survive. It is rooted in the experiences of "The Partnership Projects," a network of 21 work/education partnership programs in cities around the country.…