This guide provides an overview and a curriculum for the Education for Employment (EFE) program, which prepares students in targeted populations for independent living and productive careers. The courses encourage students to engage in activities that allow them to blend their academic and vocational studies and employment experiences to solve real-life problems, perform actual work, and produce real products. EFE includes programs for both disadvantaged students and students with disabilities. The guide is organized in three parts. The first part defines EFE, lists its goals, suggests program options, and provides information on student placement and continuation of services. The second part is the program curriculum. It includes related academic standards of learning for introductory level and levels I and II courses, a cooperative education component, and an all-aspects-of-industry component. Behavioral objectives for the various strands are listed and described. The third section of the guide contains curriculum development aids for competency-based education, including the following: task and competency lists, program design suggestions, instructional strategies, task analysis design, and sample task analysis. A task analysis worksheet is included. An appendix supplies definitions of academically and economically disadvantaged students and limited English proficiency students. (KC)