A movement in designing special education curricula in Illinois is to provide instruction in "natural community environments," including simulated and real job sites. Special education vocational programs have shifted emphasis toward a life-skills approach that incorporates vocational elements. Describes an Illinois curriculum model…

Described is cooperative education, a strategy for relating education and work. The benefits, growth in cooperative education, and labor market studies are included. Appended is a list of cooperative education training and resource centers and their directors. (KR)

This follow-up study interviewed 720 former special-education students nine months after exiting New York schools for employment, postsecondary education, and community living outcomes. Results indicate special-education program components contributing to success included work experiences, occupational education, transition planning, and…

Information is provided on tech prep education programs, which are part of a restructuring movement that combines secondary and postsecondary programs to provide technical preparation in a field such as engineering technology, agriculture, health, or business. Information on the following topics is outlined: seven essential elements of tech prep;…

A study was conducted to determine some strategies useful in fostering entrepreneurship through business incubators and postsecondary programs supported by community and technical colleges. Data were gathered through a survey of entrepreneurs and incubator managers in 74 business incubators across the United States and individual and group…

Currently, 14 of the 22 Associate in Applied Science (AAS) degree programs at New Jersey's Cumberland County College (CCC) provide work experience opportunities, incorporating hands-on experience and theories derived from instruction in the classroom. Employers who participate in work experience, or Cooperative Education (CE), programs benefit by…

This paper describes a three-phase program which places students with disabilities into job sites in strip malls, enclosed malls, industrial parks, and individual businesses to prepare them for their transition to independent living. The paper explains that in phase 1 of the program students train at a different site each day; in phase 2, students…

This bulletin describes practitioner-identified strategies that can help build effective school-to-work systems in rural areas. The first section highlights these strategies for rural school-to-work partnerships: start early; identify educational and economic opportunities in the community; entrepreneurial experiences; community service-learning;…

This proceedings document provides the texts of 13 presentations given at a 2-day conference in 1991 which focused on policies, materials, programs, and activities being implemented in Alabama to foster the successful transition of youth with disabilities to adult life. Two papers address the national scene: "Transition: Old Wine in New…

Concerns about the isolation of youth and the decline of available social capital have given rise to a new wave of workplace mentoring programs focused on youth in poverty. Most such programs have targeted youth in school and community settings; however, youth mentoring efforts in workplace settings are becoming increasingly prevalent for several…

Schools do a very poor job of preparing noncollege-bound youth to make the transition from high school to employment and adult life. A lack of formalized transition systems compounds the problems that many noncollege-bound youth encounter as they try to obtain meaningful, career-sustaining employment in primary labor markets. Various instructional…

The Young Adults Employment Supports Project (YES) of Matrix Research Institute (MRI) has been identified as an exemplary school-to-work program that includes students with disabilities. The program serves young persons with serious emotional disorders between the ages of 17-22 throughout Philadelphia who are preparing to exit special education…

A 1991 study tour to Germany, Denmark, and Sweden investigated youth education and training policies, systems, methods of financing, and programs. Concerns were integration of academic and practical skills training, assessment of student competencies for employment, expectations and outcomes of employment preparation for all youth, and system…

Louisiana Tech University conducted a program to reduce drop-out probabilities for at-risk special needs adolescents as part of the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA). Eighty-six students between the ages of 14 and 16 were chosen as "at-risk" based on economic disadvantage, lower academic performance, behavioral and adjustment problems,…

This self-instructional module, the twelfth in a series of 16 on techniques for coordinating work experience programs, deals with regular coordination activities. Addressed in the module are: (1) the nature and scope of the regular coordination activities that must be conducted by teacher-ccordinators, and (2) the effective management of regular…