This report presents six papers resulting from a symposium held June 28, 1977, to debate the validity of three assumptions on education-and-work programs, particularly in relation to youth employment. Question 1, "Who should say what a child should prepare for: the child or the community?", is answered by Peter Schrag and Margaret Fallers, both of whom agree that adult intervention is necessary but disagree on the methods to be used. Question 2, "Can we predict which skills will be saleable?", is responded to by Garth L. Mangum and C. Arnold Anderson. Mangum says, given that U.S. occupational structure is fairly stable, we should concentrate on developing criteria for determining individual skills and look closely at the important issues of career education. Anderson states that because the job possibilities for students cannot be forecasted reliably, appropriate preparatory classes cannot be specified in more than general terms. The third issue, "Collaboration between education, labor, and business--is there sufficient impetus?", is discussed by Willard Wirtz and David K. Cohen. Their papers examine (1) the effects of unemployment and underemployment; (2) the transition from youth to adult; (3) the applicability of foreign education and work strategies to the United States; and (4) the collaboration efforts to date of schools, labor, and business. The last paper, by Steven P. Heynemann, summarizes the debates on the three issues. (ELG)