Each year, in order to determine the factors that influence student attrition, Vancouver Community College (VCC) selectively surveys former students who dropped out (discontinuants) of occupational programs on VCC's three main campuses. Former students were surveyed regarding their personal characteristics, main goals for coming to VCC, activities at the time of the survey, factors affecting unemployment, job search methods, relationship of employment to training, educational plans, rating of VCC training, and factors affecting attrition. In the 1991 follow-up, 1,215 discontinuants were surveyed. Major study findings, based on a 30% response rate, included the following: (1) 52% of the discontinuants identified "course content not as expected" as a major factor in their decision to withdraw from the occupational programs at VCC; (2) 52% claimed that the quality of instruction was a decisive reason for dropping out; (3) more than 42% of the respondents across all occupational programs held the opinion that the amount of practical experience in their programs was too small; (4) about 40% said that their instructors seldom made themselves available to students; (5) 30% expressed a desire for more open class discussion in their programs; (6) more than one-third felt that their study space was insufficient; and (7) one-half wished that their programs had offered more opportunities to visit work situations in the community. (JMC)