A study (1) identified in ethnographic detail the literacy-related skills that are required in today's changing workplaces; (2) compared the literacy requirements of "high performance" workplaces with more traditionally organized ones; and (3) constructed innovative ways to introduce educators to the changing skill demands of work. The 3-year project studied circuit board assembly or "contract manufacturing" in the Silicon Valley, a rapidly growing and highly competitive part of the electronics industry. The varied functions that reading and writing served in such work environments were identified, and the ways in which industry standards and work organization, such as self-directed work teams, affect literacy requirements for a range of workers at individual companies were documented. How literacy requirements varied in these factories were determined, given different types of work organization; and the constraints that companies themselves exerted in the exercise of literate abilities were identified. A multimedia data base (a computer-base compendium of video from the factory floors; audiotaped interviews with line workers, engineers, and managers; examples of written documents and schematic diagrams and other data--is being built and field-tested which can be used to introduce vocational and literacy educators, in dynamic fashion, to the literacy requirements of changing workplaces. (Contains 16 figures, 1 table of data, 8 notes, and 81 references. The 17 appendixes present log reports and procedures, transcripts, meta-categories worksheets and frequencies, and taxonomies of team activities and classroom activities.) (Author/RS)