Vocational education does not create jobs, but rather is a force in readiness, meeting the demand for workers by the business-industrial complex. At the heart of the process of providing job opportunities to urban youth in Cleveland are the vocational teachers and teacher coordinators who have the primary responsibility for placement and followup. Besides technical advisory committees which, as representatives of the business-industrial complex, assist in opening doors to employment opportunities, various programs have been developed to help students make the transition from school to work: the job placement program, school-to-work linkage program, occupational work experience program, cooperative work experience program, and early job placement. Cooperative work experience programs have been found to be both popular and successful, with seventy percent of the students remaining with the work experience companies after graduation. Since sixty-nine percent of students in grades 11 and 12 enroll in vocational education programs, there is some assurance that minority groups, the economically disadvantaged, and the handicapped are involved. Thus, vocational education has achieved some success in assisting youth and adults in the transition from school to work; but in assisting them in establishing themselves as entrepreneurs, it has encountered several barriers: lack of investment capital, lack of business experience, and lack of a well-defined self concept on the part of the students. To maintain and ultimately increase the level of cooperation and involvement that vocational education programs have achieved with the community and the business-industrial complex, the programs must continue to communicate with, listen to, and respond to the world of work. (ELG)