Changes in work and the workplace are transforming the kinds of knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed for successful work performance. Educators and school reformers are updating curricula and redesigning school programs to ensure that, in addition to academics, young people have opportunities to learn work-related skills and attitudes. A situative study of workplace skills that included case studies of students involved in building a transportation system and caring for patients at home demonstrated how worksite observation experiences enable students to learn needed job skills, "generic" skills, and work-related dispositions within the context of specific work cultures. The case studies demonstrated how skills become multi-dimensional when learned within the context of actual work and how contextualized learning promotes the ability to use information drawn from a range of academic disciplines to perform tasks and solve unique problems. Research has established the essential components for framing high school courses and/or programs around authentic tasks and apprenticeship methods and around teaching the following: complex reasoning skills, work-related attitudes, cooperative skills, job-specific knowledge, and academic knowledge. Contextualized learning requires that teachers do the following: become master practitioners among student apprentices; gain exposure to the world of work; and adapt their teaching to support authentic learning. (MN)