Curricular domains relevant to work experience programs are motivation, sequencing, and goals. A case study of a project of institutional collaboration on peer counseling for work experience students (forming a consortium between a city school board of education and a community college) was made through data generated from the Youthwork National Policy Study. The objective of the study was to discover how these curricular concerns were translated into policy implementation. The project called for placement of 400 high school and 400 college students through the project. From the case study it became apparent that attention to motivation, sequencing, and goals in program implementation does not proceed in a straight line. Rather, the bureaucratic and ideological context became increasingly influential in determining the eventual curricular design. As the project evolved, the number of students placed became the major criterion of success, usurping the motivation, sequencing, and goal curricular demands; and logistics problems overshadowed curricular concerns. From this case study several recommendations regarding curriculum of work experience programs were made: (1) work experience programs that are supposed to be educational need to study the link between schooling and the job; (2) work experience projects should take into account the ideology and bureaucratic norms of community groups and schools when beginning a project; (3) curriculum choices should be defined in advance and the role of local officials should be clarified; and (4) goals should go beyond economic productivity to learning about work and personal development. (KC)