Whether an organization has its own facilities and programs to teach people to perform the jobs necessary to accomplish its purpose, or sends its prospective employees to schools outside its own confines to receive that training, occupational education and training is big business. One problem with occupational training programs is that such programs often overtrain prospective employees, i.e., train them for any task they might possibly need to perform, rather than merely those they will have to perform. While this may seem like a good idea, it has pitfalls: employees may become disenchanted when they do not get to do some of the interesting jobs for which they have been trained, resulting in attrition, or training may be too early to be remembered if it ever is needed. As an alternative to this approach, the Air Force has adopted a cost-effective approach to training. This approach suggests that, for most circumstances, one ought to provide training to employees in only those areas in which the probability is high that they will use that training on their subsequent job. In order to implement this policy, the U.S. Air Force Occupational Measurement Center, located at Randolph Air Force Base, Texas, conducts the Air Force's Occupational Analysis Program. One of the primary purposes of this program is the identification of tasks and groups of tasks that are performed by Air Force personnel in given career fields. These tasks are determined by occupational surveys. Air Force occupational analysis is a four-stage process that includes inventory development, survey administration, data analysis, and interaction with data users. These procedures provide a theoretical basis for cost-effective Air Force training programs. (KC)