Operation Second Chance trained school dropouts for vocational skills in three areas in North Carolina--the mountainous West, the Piedmont plains, and the coastal farmlands. Length of the training varied from the six weeks nurses' aide program to the 12-week sewing for upholstery program through the 16-week carpentry, upholstery, welding, pre-apprentice bricklayer, and auto service station mechanic programs. Many trainees improved in reading and writing and became employed, particularly at the Piedmont training site. In Appalachia trainees were not discontented and could not separate themselves from their homelands. In eastern North Carolina, trainees viewed their poverty as undesirable and themselves as marginal members of their communities; they were eager to leave. The relationship which a dropout has to the rest of the community depends largely on the community itself; in the Piedmont, the dropout could earn respectability by his hard work; in the east, one's status was determined at birth; and in the west the dropouts belonged to the same class with most citizens and did not have to exert effort to gain status. Whether a trainee has to work for his recognition will have a determining influence on his behavior in the program. (nl)