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This paper compares and contrasts minimum competency testing and transferable skills in order to identify the important questions and issues to be considered by educational planners in developing programs intended to prepare students to meet the demands of both work and life. Each of the seven sections addresses a specific question related to minimum competencies and transferable skills. Sections included are (1) Why the Current Interest in Them?; (2) Whether Competencies or Skills?; (3) What Competencies and Skills?; (4) How Many?; (5) How Measured?; (6) When Measured?; and (7) What to Do with the Incompetent? Examples of transferable skills and characteristics are appended. (LRA)

The CERES (Career Education Responsive to Every Student) Model Project for grades K-12 was evaluated by an outside party as well as internally by project staff (see CE 017 740). The external summative evaluation was limited to assessing project effectiveness based on pre- and posttests for the following objectives: (1) career education knowledge and awareness, career choice, and obtaining information about careers in grades 7 and 8; (2) job application skills in grade 9; (3) knowledge of auto mechanics, basic vocabulary, and career education information in auto-English classes; (4) improvement in attitude toward, and increase in knowledge of, career education among teaching interns; and (5) developing a pilot testing program to evaluate career education in elementary schools. It was concluded that CERES staff members function well as a team and receive much support from administrators, teachers, and the community; that career education seems strongest at the elementary level and at the skill-preparation level in the secondary schools; that the special education component needs more leadership, and articulation should be improved among all components; that the project has not only increased the students' career awareness but has also favorably influenced preservice teaching interns; and that a stronger conceptual framework, as well as more effective instructional materials, needs to be developed. (ELG)

Policy Studies in Education (a department of the Educational Research Council of America) performed a third-party evaluation of the Career Education in the Arts program for gifted and talented secondary school students. The study focused primarily on a pretest and posttest of twenty-five students' career awareness and attitudes. Eighteen students were female and seven were male. The evaluators also visited the program site twice to discuss objectives and plans, review and revise the questionnaires, and to talk with students. Findings indicated that in both the pretest and posttest, students showed fairly favorable attitudes toward themselves, the arts, and the world of work in the arts. Students showed many positive changes in cognitive items which dealt with knowledge about work in the arts and career decision making. Through site visits and talking with students, it was determined that students' attitudes toward the program were very positive. Through the questionnaire, it was found that slightly over half of the students felt that students who participate in the program could expect to gain enough knowledge to make a final decision about pursuing a career in the arts. The two most pressing needs of the project are (1) rethinking parental involvement in the project, and (2) continuing to develop, revise, and refine the career education component of the program. (LRA)