This manual is designed to assist school personnel in their efforts to increase the number of women and nontraditional students who are recruited into and retained in nontraditional occupational preparation programs. Discussed first are the nature and scope of the problem of retaining disadvantaged students in nontraditional vocational programs, the barriers faced by nontraditional students, and general procedures for planning nontraditional vocational program recruitment and retention strategies. The remaining four chapters of the guide are devoted to recruitment, counseling, training and pretraining, and placement strategies that are targeted at increasing retention of disadvantaged students in nontraditional vocational programs in Florida. Each of these chapters consists of a series of strategy sheets that contain a strategy objective, a discussion of the strategy, procedures for its implementation, personnel and budget requirements for effective use, and instructions for evaluating the strategy. (MN)