Despite the fact that American society persistently separates home from workplace and extends adolescence, most American youth make the school-to-work transition with a minimum of pain and reasonable success. A substantial minority do not, however, and there is need to improve the transition process especially for those who have been economically and culturally deprived. No program to improve the school-to-work transition can expect success unless it makes an allowance for the constraints imposed by the cultural norms, labor market realities, and human development processes that constitute the transition environment. Irresponsibility is a far more serious barrier to successful youth access to the labor market than are inexperience and lack of skill. As job security continues to decline in the United States, increasing numbers of youth are finding themselves among that peripheral group of employees to whom employers are reluctant to make any commitment. The family is the single most important contributor or deterrent to the career success of youth. The discipline of successful school performance is helpful in preparing youth for labor market participation. Vocational education has suffered bad press because it has misconstrued its own best role, which should be career exploration at the secondary level and career preparation at the postsecondary level. Apprenticeship's potential for contributing to the school-to-work transition is very limited in the United States. Like job training, apprenticeship typically serves employers' needs and is most often only available to individuals who have already completed the school-to-work transition. Second-chance programs of employment and training have made a modest contribution to improving youths' school-to-work transition and can be strengthened with some recommended reforms. Strategies to improve and facilitate the youth transition process include work-oriented parent effectiveness training, career education supplemented by experience-based alternative schools and second-chance programs, and a world-of-work curriculum that emphasizes job-keeping and job-doing skills. (MN)