Until the late 1990s, "vocational education" in traditional trades such as carpentry, cosmetology, and auto mechanics was often the presumptive high school placement for low-performing students considered ill-suited for college. However, in the past two decades, policymakers and educators have reconsidered what is now referred to as…

Generic skills are those overt and covert behaviors which are fundamental to the performance of many tasks and sub tasks carried out in a wide range of occupations and which are basic to job specific skills. Generally included in the term are: mathematics, communication, reasoning, interpersonal and manipulative skills. Excluded from generic…