The manual is designed to provide guidelines for developing basic educational components in manpower programs for youth from poverty backgrounds who dropped out of school before graduating from high school and whose educational deficiencies reduce their employability or their ability to profit from training programs. It discusses relevant theoretical principles, reviews the significant approaches to the problem, and outlines the elements of an education component for manpower programs which reflects the current state of the art. Chapters cover the following topics: goals of an education component, the reading process, reading problems, proposed remedial strategies, the mathematics unit, the advanced general education unit, principles and application, diagnosing and testing, and program design. Three brief appendixes provide background information; a list of supplementary materials related to reading, language skill, and mathematics; and a bibliography. (Author/JR)