The National Advisory Commission on Work-Based Learning worked to identify practical steps that the Labor Department could take to help increase the skill levels of the U.S. work force and expand work-based training. The findings gained from a series of roundtables and further studies were synthesized into a set of recommendations in five major areas: policy leadership, leadership by example, skill standards, benchmarks for human resource development systems, and incentives for change. The Commission suggested that the Labor Department take several steps to improve the situation, including the following: (1) adopt a proposed policy statement to be issued by the White House in support of Total Quality and Managing Diversity as two critical components of productivity and competitiveness; (2) work closely with progressive and innovative voices in the business and labor communities to build support for Total Quality and Managing Diversity; (3) increase emphasis on human resource development and workplace reform; (4) conduct an independent audit of the Labor Department to identify the main barriers to implementing Total Quality and Managing Diversity; (5) work to ensure that proposed skill standards legislation supports rather than preempts existing voluntary demonstration efforts; and (6) help states integrate technology diffusion training, diversity, and labor-management relations. (MN)