ASPIRE--"Assisting Special Populations in Readiness for Employment"--is a secondary special education transition program featuring coordinated services between the public and private sectors to integrate secondary level disabled students into subsidized private sector employment. ASPIRE was introduced into the Lake Tahoe Unified School…

The report discusses exemplary practices in coordinating special education and vocational rehabilitation services. Project sites were nominated and visited and staff interviewed. The first of two sections in the report compares program elements (planning, administration/structure, staff development training and dissemination efforts, vocational…

The monograph describes 11 exemplary programs selected in 1987 by the J. M. (Jeremiah Milbank) Foundation from 154 programs providing vocational services to persons with disabilities. Programs were selected in four categories: community-based work adjustment, consortium-based transition, supported work in small communities, and work services for…

A cooperative project of the University of Oregon and Springfield, Oregon, School District provided adolescents with emotional disturbances with a transition specialist to develop a service delivery plan and access services. Self-determination, competitive vocational placements, and educational support were emphasized. Project impact on…

This report describes 38 model school-business partnerships that are being conducted in South Carolina. The 38 reports were gathered from 24 school districts and 3 statewide projects. Criteria for selection were that the partnerships must be in some way exemplary of the program and the school district must have reported in some detail their…

Describes a vocational program for special education students at Kennebunk High School in Kennebunk, Maine, that guides students from the classroom, to an in-house business, to a community-based job-learning position, and then to placement in an appropriate job. Stresses opportunities in small business and entrepreneurship as well as…

The Career Immersion program, which has been conducted since 1989-90 at Silver Spring Elementary School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, introduces the world of work to students at an early age. The program's primary activities involve hands-on, school-based learning in which all students participate. Students between the ages of 3 and 13 participate in 2…

This document presents nine exemplary career guidance and counseling programs identified by the National Center for Research in Vocational Education's Office of Student Services. Chapter 1 presents a synthesis of the nationally recognized career guidance programs successful in assisting students in their career development. It provides a…

This document describes a project that developed a resource guide for information on business-education partnerships in California, using a literature search and telephone interviews, and produced a guide to these partnerships. The project also explored the role of business in educational improvement and reform. Information is presented on the…

This report is one in a series on the work of the 30 pilot projects that form the European Community's second Programme on the Transition from Education to Adult and Working Life. Many of the projects in the Transition Programme are involved in developing or implementing work experience programs as a means of helping young people's personal,…

A description is presented of the Youth Apprenticeship Demonstration Project in Broome County, New York, which enrolls 25 high school juniors from 5 school systems in newly created apprenticeships in manufacturing and engineering technology, administration and office technology, and health care. Apprentices spend 10-20 hours per week (plus summers…

Joint Ventures in Vocational Education projects link participating businesses with secondary vocational programs in a cooperative relationship. These are voluntary arrangements between vocational programs and a public or private sector agency that combine the energies and resources of the partners to enrich various aspects of the vocational…

New statistics showing the need for improving the quality of the U.S. work force shift the focus of government-sponsored employment and training programs from social justice to economic security for all. At the same time, statistics show that more than 50 percent of young black males, even those who have a high school education, cannot find jobs.…

Ohio's use of the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) 8 percent set-aside has been noted as exemplary. The first half of this report reviews the national literature on 8 percent JTPA programs, then discusses Ohio's State Education Coordination and Grants Advisory Council (SECGAC), unique among state administrative mechanisms. It notes that SECGAC…

Project Forward, conducted at Cape Cod Community College (Massachusetts) since 1988, provides campus-based, vocational skills instruction along with work-based experience for students with disabilities. Forty-five students aged 18-40 are currently being served by the project. The majority of the students have specific learning disabilities,…