This study used a new specification of participation in vocational education to estimate the effects of high school curriculum on the labor market experiences of youth. Five patterns of participation developed in an earlier study--intensity of training, continuity of training, proximity of training to time of graduation, diversity of program areas, and the addition of logically related study outside the main area of specialization--were identified and labeled Concentrator, Limited Concentrator, Concentrator/Explorer, Explorer, and Incidental/Personal according to degree of involvement in vocational education. Estimates were derived for effects on earnings, training-related placement, labor force status, job prestige, and other job characteristics using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Labor Market Experience (NLS), New Youth Cohort, supplemented with high school transcripts of survey participants. It was found that increasing concentration in vocational education (the three concentrator patterns) increased likelihood of holding a conventional job (as classified by Holland). It was also found that Incidental/Personal and Concentrator/Explorer participants were much less likely than Concentrators or Limited Concentrators to be in training-related employment; and that Women Concentrators earned more per week than respondents who took no vocational courses. The study concluded that vocational education policy should be concerned with inducing pride in work, with looking at long-term training needs, with emphasizing helping disadvantaged groups, and with working within the prevailing economic conditions. (KC)