The Tech Prep/Associate Degree concept offers an answer to the nationwide mandate to improve the U.S. educational system and thus to enable the country to remain competitive in the world market. Tech Prep is a sequence of study beginning in high school and continuing through at least 2 years of postsecondary occupational education. The Tech Prep program integrates academic and occupational subjects, placing heavy emphasis on articulation between high schools and two-year colleges from secondary to postsecondary education. The curricula currently being designed for Tech Prep/Associate Degree programs will prepare better educated workers with advanced skills and the ability to transfer skills as technology changes. Students, employers, high schools, and postsecondary institutions all benefit from Tech Prep programs. Major features basic to the design and development of Tech Prep programs include the following: applied academics, local partnerships, articulation, career exploration and counseling, associate and/or baccalaureate degree potential, and elevated postsecondary curriculum. Business/labor and government cooperate with education in a successful program. Teachers, principals, and counselors, as well as college faculty and administrators, must be included in all phases of planning and implementation, since they facilitate systemic change at the foundation. Although the federal government has devoted significant funds to the support of Tech Prep through the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Education Act of 1990, local resources must be reallocated to support the needs of the established programs. (YLB)