This research considers the following proposition: Vocational Education As A Viable Option for the Academically Qualified (the German Approach), As Opposed to Vocational Education As A Last Resort for the Chronic Underachiever (the All too typical American Approach). Technical labor in the United States of the 1990s is by and large unskilled and unprepared (Business Higher Education Forum, 1988). Most experts agree that the American economy requires "more highly educated entry workers in order for our country to remain competitive" (United States Department of Labor, 1988, p. 9). Unfortunately, all too many of these experts also agree that "much of our human talent is being wasted, and a growing proportion of the next generation is slipping beyond the reach of the institutions and values of our society" (Business Higher Education Forum, 1988, p. 6). American businesses, for the most part view the contemporary high school diploma as signifying nothing more than time spent in the classroom (Rosenfeld, 1987).
Business, government, and the education establishment in the United States recognize that a problem exists with respect to vocational education. Business, for its part, expresses a willingness to participate in educational reform (The Business Roundtable, 1988). Business, however, is not willing to part with any money for this task, unless it gains some decision making powers in the policy making and program implementation (The Business Roundtable, 1989).
Government, as represented by the Reagan and Bush Administrations, suffers from ideological hangups which dictate against any type of meaningful cooperation between business and government (Lawrence, 1987). Cooperation between government and business in anything from the development of a national industrial policy to the creation of meaningful educational reform would be viewed by these ideologues as an act which "smacked of Government directed economic planning . . ...