The new technology is forcing vocational education decision makers to establish policies that will influence the direction and focus of vocational education during the next decade. This task is further complicated by the difficulties associated with forecasting the types of skills that will be required by future workers. While many educational planners feel that the emphasis of vocational education should be on traditional job skills, others are calling for an emphasis on the new technology. Still others are calling for an emphasis on a common set of intellectual, basic educational, and transferable skills. Three alternatives that have been suggested for adapting to the new technology are a focus on basic skills alone and on an approach that would present a balanced mix of basic, transferable, and change skills. Business and industry have expressed dissatisfaction with entry-level employees' competence in both basic and transferable skills. Despite the present problems, vocational education has the potential to help students adapt to the new technology. (The second part of this paper consists of an annotated description of 24 of the primary sources of information cited in the synthesis.) (MN)