This paper is intended to help supervisors, trainers, and teachers involved in Great Britain's Youth Training Scheme (YTS) understand the principles of participative learning and use them in teaching core skills to YTS trainees. Participative learning is discussed in terms of its emphasis on individual activity in learning and recognition of the importance of motivating students and making them responsible for their own learning. Addressed next is the role of participatory learning in helping students develop competence in job, core, and personal effectiveness skills and learn to transfer these skills to new situations. One YTS instructor's analysis of the 12 core skills involved in the task of slab laying is presented. Next, guidelines are provided for performing similar analyses in other YTS courses. Three examples of participative learning in action are provided. In each example, one group of students performs a typical learning activity (they make a tool box, go on a field trip, or file some documents) in a way that allows for very little planning and decision making on the students' parts, and a second group of students performs the same activity in a way that requires the students to make decisions, formulate strategies, and solve problems. Each example ends with a comparison of the two approaches in terms of the skills and knowledge gained by students taught by each of the techniques. (MN)