The South Dakota Core Curriculum Project involving the career ladder approach to health manpower training, which began in 1970, had seven objectives including the following: (1) To organize a Health Manpower Council for the entire State; (2) to define the areas of basic commonality among the various training programs; and (3) to develop a core curriculum for health manpower training on a statewide basis. Over a 3-year period, the Health Manpower Council (70 representatives from educational, health-care, and related institutions), through the work of its eight subcommittees and three council workshops, developed a core curriculum. This curriculum allows a student ultimately to possess a foundation of knowledge and skills on which to build occupational mobility and permit an upward academic pursuit. (The appendix, comprising three-fourths of this report, contains the curriculum's topical content outline and 785 measurable behavioral objectives. The content is in two segments: (1) Primary level--that collection of fundamental tasks, skills, knowledge, and attitudes common to all health manpower training/education curricula--which includes three units: Health Care Delivery System, Introduction to Health Science, and Emergency Medical Care; and (2) secondary level--that collection which is common to more than one type of curricula--which includes six areas: Anatomy and physiology, chemistry, interpersonal relationships, microbiology, nutrition, and public health and health-care delivery.) (EM)