In preparation for a conference held in Paris, France, in November 1994, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development launched a 5-year program that involved 20 countries studying the changing role of vocational and technical education and training (VOTEC). A synthesis of national studies was prepared on three related issues: (1) the implications and information requirements of viewing VOTEC within an investment framework; (2) the main features of existing institutional and other incentive structures for investing in VOTEC; and (3) using public policies to improve existing incentive structures to ensure a maximum of efficiency and effectiveness in the financing and provision of VOTEC. The study suggested that, despite the massive and increasing amounts of public and private expenditure on education and training in highly industrialized and also in industrializing and developing countries, there is a scarcity of clear evidence balancing the costs of and returns to such investment. To a large degree, this lack of evidence of returns to human capital is due to the very heterogeneous nature of the societal and private benefits derived from education and training and the long time periods over which the benefits accrue. Additionally, the study noted that the job market requires increasingly higher-level and less job-specific skills (more professionalism) and questions who should pay for these skills: the employer as formerly the case in job training, or the individual and society as is the case in traditional education? (KC)