A study sought to determine how graduates of vocational, technical, and adult education (VTAE) programs fared in the work force as compared with a national comparison group. The secondary purpose of the study was to ascertain the feasibility and appropriateness of using existing data bases to conduct follow-up research of vocational education graduates. More than 15,000 graduates of vocational education programs in 16 VTAE districts in Wisconsin for the year 1982-83 were categorized based upon information obtained from student records and state income records. A national comparison group based on United States Bureau of the Census records for 1985 was used. Some of the observations drawn from the study were the following: (1) overall, VTAE graduates outperformed economically comparison groupings based on the same gender and age breakdown for persons with a high school diploma; (2) the longer VTAE graduates are in the work force, the more they outperform their peers economically; (3) the longer the term of training, the higher the earnings of the VTAE graduate; (4) female graduates outperformed their peers to a greater degree than did males; (5) graduates of 2-year technical programs and trade and industry programs earned more than graduates from all other program areas; (6) VTAE graduates tended to work full time and to receive unemployment compensation less often than their peers with high school diplomas. (Document includes 77 data tables.) (KC)