AN INTENSIVE STUDY OF TWO SAMPLES DRAWN FROM ONE GEOGRAPHIC AREA IN EACH OF FOUR COUNTRIES AIMED TO DETERMINE THE TRAINING AND JOB HISTORIES OF SKILLED WORKERS IN THE METAL TRADES AND THE RESULTS OBTAINED BY DIFFERENT TRAINING SYSTEMS. THE COUNTRIES WERE SELECTED TO REPRESENT (1) PREDOMINANTLY SCHOOL-BASED TRAINING (BELGIUM), (2) HIGHLY REGULATED APPRENTICE TRAINING (GERMANY), (3) COMBINED SCHOOL-APPRENTICE TRAINING (THE NETHERLANDS), AND (4) LOOSELY CONTROLLED APPRENTICESHIP (UNITED KINGDOM). THE SAMPLES WERE COMPOSED OF PERSONS WHO HAD PASSED SKILLED-WORKER METAL TRADES EXAMINATIONS IN 1958 (IN BELGIUM, 1955), AND SKILLED WORKERS AGED 21-29 WHO WERE EMPLOYED IN THE METAL TRADES IN 1963. THE INFORMATION INDICATED THAT ACCEPTED NORMS AND CONCEPTS RELATING TO VOCATIONAL TRAINING WERE NOT ALWAYS BORNE OUT BY THE REAL SITUATION, AND THAT DIFFERENCES BETWEEN COUNTRIES WERE NOT NEARLY SO GREAT AS COMMONLY BELIEVED AND RELATE TO DETAILS RATHER THAN TO BASIC PRINCIPLES. IN THREE OF THE FOUR COUNTRIES, THE TRAINING SYSTEMS WERE CHANGING RAPIDLY. THE CHANGE APPEARED TO BE IN THE DIRECTION OF THE SYSTEM EXISTING IN THE NETHERLANDS. THREE STAGES WERE CRYSTALLIZING AS DISTINCT PERIODS IN THE TRAINING PROCESS--A PERIOD OF ORIENTATION, A PERIOD OF FORMATIVE TRAINING, AND A PERIOD OF SPECIALIZATION. WASTAGE IN TRAINING, THE PROPORTION OF WORKERS WHO EVENTUALLY ENTER OCCUPATIONS OTHER THAN THOSE FOR WHICH THEY WERE TRAINED OR WHO ENTER MORE NARROWLY SPECIALIZED OCCUPATIONS, WAS HIGH IN ALL FOUR COUNTRIES. A SMALLER PROPORTION OF THE UNITED KINGDOM THAN THE GERMAN APPRENTICES HAD BROAD SKILLS AND HIGH LEVEL TRAINING. THE PROPORTION OF TRAINEES GOING ON TO TECHNICIAN TRAINING COURSES WAS HIGH IN GERMANY AND THE NETHERLANDS AND RELATIVELY LOW IN THE TWO OTHER COUNTRIES. (EM)