This concept paper addresses the preparation of vocational education teachers. Several topics are listed with comments, and, in some cases, supporting documentation has been abstracted. These topics correspond to reasons for the lack of national visibility within Florida as indicated by the 2001 rankings in the U.S. News and World Report that identified no universities in Florida as being leaders in vocational technical education (VTE). These reasons are discussed: Florida has historically had a teacher service orientation; certification has driven university VTE programs' offerings; state universities in Florida have not generally established areas of expertise for research, while some have even dropped VTE teacher preparation programs; strong graduate programs and federally funded research are indicators of ranked university VTE programs; lack of communication; and participation in the various "trends" such as school-to-work, tech prep, and workforce development has not been established. (YLB)