In a yearlong project, Britain's Business and Technology Education Council (BTEC) investigated why some students leave their educational programs before achieving their certificates or diplomas. The project drew information on completion rates from the BTEC database. Views of BTEC centers' staff were canvassed through a national survey covering 348 programs in business and finance, computing, and engineering. Center staff and BTEC's lead moderators shared views on good practice and the development work going on in their centers to improve completion rates. Field work visits involved interviewing program teams and 60 students and studying programs. A postal survey obtained insights from noncompleting students on their reasons for leaving their programs. Analysis revealed the following: personal attention was the basic principle behind good retention rates; most BTEC students left a program with some recorded achievement; getting a job was one of the main reasons for full-time students leaving programs; loss or change of employment and other work-related reasons were among the main reasons why part-time students left early; and most students who left early did so for program-related reasons, such as poor grades or poor achievement. Examples of good practice in centers include the following: improving personal attention, student support and personal tutoring; supporting large numbers of students; providing links with employers; dealing with anxiety; providing preenrollment attention; and using open and flexible learning techniques. (YLB)