A study examined the perceptions of employers in Michigan concerning the vocational training received by employees who either completed or left vocational training programs in 1980. A second objective of the study was to compare the relative cost and effectiveness of using telephone and mail surveys to gather data for this type of study. Of a total of 2,553 Michigan employers identified as employing a recent participant in a vocational training program, 2,402 were contacted. When asked to rate the vocational training received by the former students in terms of technical knowledge, work attitude, and work quality (on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being very poor and 5 being very good), employers supplied the following mean ratings: technical knowledge received a mean rating of 4.21; work attitudes received a 4.47; and work quality received a 4.42. Over half of these employers felt that former vocational students were better prepared for their jobs than were their counterparts who did not participate in vocational education. Despite the higher cost of telephone surveys, it was concluded that the telephone survey approach is to be preferred over the mail survey approach inasmuch as it yielded a higher response rate and was the only one of the two approaches that allowed those administering the survey to clarify its general intent and to elaborate on specific survey items as soon as questions arose in the respondents' minds. (Both survey instruments are appended.) (MN)